Municipal Hospital Raphael de Paula Souza treats patients with dengue symptoms in Rio de Janeiro in February. Not since the darkest days of the covid-19 pandemic, when hospital systems all over this country ruptured under the weight of the disease, has Brazil witnessed such scenes. But this time, it’s not the coronavirus that has led states all over the country to declare a state of emergency and even spurred the construction of a field hospital in the nation’s capital of Brasília.
The disease has historically been confined to tropical climates. But in recent years, as cases have skyrocketed across much of the world —mosquito, already roams. Florida last year reported a record 178 cases of local transmission. California, Arizona and Texas are also detecting local transmission. The same dynamic is also being seenmosquito, the disease could become increasingly prevalent, even endemic, across much of southern Europe and the southern United States.
Then came another accelerant: the simultaneous circulation of all four types of dengue fever. That reduced immunological protections people might have otherwise had in a country where dengue has long been present. “I’ve been working with dengue since 1997,” Luz said, “and I’ve never seen another year when all four are circulating at the same time.”
“If people don’t use the water for one week, the mosquito breeds in it,” said Raman Velayudhan, an expert on dengue at the World Health Organization. “This is a disease of urban cities.”