The number of confirmed dengue cases increased 62.7% in January compared to the same month last year, federal health authorities announced.

The epidemiology department of the Secretariat of Health said that 441 confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne tropical disease were reported to January 30. There were 271 reported cases in the same period last year.

The department said that 223 cases were considered serious while the other 208 were not. Almost three-quarters of the confirmed cases were concentrated in six states – Veracruz, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Guerrero, Jalisco and Yucatán.

The epidemiology department also reported that dengue is suspected as the cause of 19 deaths this year in Veracruz, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas.

In addition, it said there are 6,096 possible dengue cases that have not yet been confirmed. The number is 149% higher than the 2,446 possible cases detected in January 2019.

Cases of dengue, which is spread by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, surged last year, with more than 16,000 confirmed infections in the first 8 1/2 months of the year alone.

The federal government came under fire after it was revealed that health authorities didn’t spend a single peso on insecticides until early August.

However, Dr. Ruy López Ridaura, director of the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control Programs, said in September that mosquito spraying had occurred throughout the whole year in parts of the country susceptible to dengue outbreaks, explaining that state authorities used their own funds to purchase insecticides.

Earlier the same month, a senior health official accused insecticide vendors of conducting a disinformation campaign that linked the outbreak of dengue fever to the federal government’s later than usual purchase of the product.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Xataka (sp)