Dengue News Today: Bangladesh, Jamaica, Italy, Africa and Florida
In today’s newsletter, I’ll take a look at some of the latest data in areas reporting more than usual numbers of dengue fever cases in 2023.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh continues to be one of the global hotspots for dengue fever this year as the record numbers of cases and deaths still climbs.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) reported an additional 2,609 cases and nine deaths today, bringing the record numbers to 244,698 dengue cases (89,956 in Dhaka) and 1,190 deaths (739 in Dhaka).
The previous high for a single year of 101,354 cases was registered in 2019. The former annual dengue death toll record was 281 in 2022.
Jamaica
In a follow-up on the dengue outbreak that was declared in Jamaica in late September, health authorities reported an additional 1,456 suspected cases reported Sept. 17-23, bringing the total case count to 2,021 suspected cases, of which 205 were confirmed cases. This is compared to the 59 cases reported over a similar period in 2022.
The majority of the confirmed cases were reported in Kingston, Portland, Saint Andrew, Saint Catherine, Saint James, and Saint Thomas.
The dengue outbreak in Jamaica has prompted the US Embassy on the island to issue a health alert.
Italy
Italian health officials have reported 58 confirmed cases of dengue transmitted locally in Italy and notified as of 16 October 2023.
These cases refer to four unconnected transmission episodes in the province of Lodi (30 confirmed cases), in the province of Latina (2 cases) and in the province of Rome (25 cases with exposures in different parts of the metropolitan city of Rome and 1 case in Anzio, for which investigations are underway to verify any epidemiological links).
Africa
According to the Africa CDC, since January 2023, a total of 64,443 cases (10,367 confirmed; 54,076 suspected) and 158 deaths (CFR: 0.2%) of dengue fever have been reported in 12 countries: Angola (3 cases; no death(s)), Burkina Faso (48,885; 133), Chad (960; 1), Côte d’Ivoire (107; 0), Egypt (578; 0), Ethiopia (10,180; 4), Guinea (6; 1), Mali (518; 1) , Mauritius (263; 0), Sao Tome and Principe (1,227; 11), Senegal (52; 0) and Sudan (1,664; 7).
8,601* new cases of dengue is due to batch reporting from Burkina Faso.
Florida
For the second week in a row, Florida state health officials reported an additional 15 locally transmitted dengue cases.
The latest cases were reported in Miami-Dade County (14) and Broward County (1).
This brings the total to 68 autochthonous dengue fever cases year to date (the same total as was reported during all of 2022)—Broward (4), Hardee, Miami-Dade (61), Palm Beach, and Polk counties.