Brazil is experiencing an enormous outbreak of dengue fever, the sometimes fatal mosquito-borne disease, and public health experts say it is a harbinger of a coming surge in cases in the Americas, including Puerto Rico.
Dengue case numbers have already soared in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay in the last few months, during the Southern Hemisphere summer, and the virus will move up through the continents with the seasons.
In the United States, Dr. Gabriela Paz-Bailey, chief of the dengue branch at the division of vector-borne diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that she expected high rates of dengue infection in Puerto Rico this year and that there would be more cases in the continental United States as well, especially in Florida, as well as in Texas, Arizona and Southern California.
Dengue is spread by Aedes aegypti, a species of mosquito that is becoming established in new regions, including warmer, wetter parts of the United States, where it had never been seen until the past few years.
Brazil has started an emergency campaign to immunize children in areas with the highest rates or risk of dengue transmission, using a two-dose vaccine called Qdenga that is made by the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company of Japan.
The research center will ask the Brazilian government to approve the vaccine, and it has facilities to produce it, aiming to start delivering shots in 2025.
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