Reported circumstances are shut to 2 million up to now this yr, making it the seventh worst outbreak since 2000, in accordance information from the PAHO.Within the first two months of this yr alone, Peru was compelled to declare a well being emergency throughout a lot of the nation, Paraguay registered greater than 5 occasions the everyday variety of suspected circumstances for the interval (virtually 100,000), and huge swarms of mosquitoes coursed by way of Argentina.However it’s Brazil which is at present being hit hardest, with South America’s largest nation already reporting 1.5 million circumstances since January.The area appears to be like set to surpass the record-breaking epidemic in 2023 – when 4.5 million circumstances have been reported and hospitals have been overrun – with epidemiologists anticipating the variety of dengue circumstances to greater than double the earlier document.Dr Julio Henrique Rosa Croda, physician and affiliate professor on the UFMS College of Drugs and Yale College of Public Well being, mentioned that some hospitals, primarily primarily based within the capital, are already changing into “overwhelmed.”“The sufferers in locations like Brasilia are struggling, they look forward to six hours to be attended to within the capital of the nation and we haven’t even reached the height of the illness,” mentioned Dr Croda.Prof Ribas Freitas – Professor of Epidemiology at São Leopoldo Mandic College of Drugs, Campinas – is anxious that the nation’s response is disjointed between federal, state and native authorities, whereas well being officers have left it too late to stem the unfold of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the illness and thrives in cities. “The management of mosquitoes proper now just isn’t too environment friendly, as a result of they’re flying with the virus. The mosquito management is extra environment friendly if you do it earlier than [they hatch], in November, December – to keep away from an epidemic even beginning.”