Guatemala declares national emergency due to dengue epidemic

Guatemala declared this Tuesday a national health emergency due to the increase in cases of dengue, an “epidemic” that has left nine dead and more than 14,600 sick in the country since January.

The measure was announced by the Ministry of Health, which urged public and private organizations in the sector in a document to coordinate actions with the ministry to prevent outbreaks with fumigation days and maintain surveillance to “reduce mortality.”

At the beginning of March, the government of social democratic president Bernardo Arévalo declared a national epidemiological alert due to “the beginning of the season in which dengue transmission increases in the country.”

The global incidence of dengue has grown considerably in the last two decades and Latin America is the region where 80% of the world’s cases are registered, according to the Guatemalan ministry.

Last year, dengue left 118 dead and about 65,000 cases in Guatemala, a historical maximum that surpassed the record of 2019, when there were more than 50,000 cases, according to official statistics.

Dengue is a disease endemic to tropical areas that causes high fevers, headaches, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain and, in the most severe cases, hemorrhages that can cause death.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned in April 2023 that dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases are spreading much further and further from their usual areas due to climate change.