Peru to declare a state of emergency in four regions due to rising dengue cases
Peru’s Ministry of Health announced this Friday that it will declare a health emergency in four regions of the country due to the increase in dengue fever cases and allocate a budget to local governments to combat the disease.
“We have announced that we are going to declare a state of emergency and probably the most affected are Ancash, Piura, in the first phase we are also looking at Ica and La Libertad. We hope that this supreme decree can be approved in the coming weeks,” Health Minister César Vázquez told radio station RPP.
“I reaffirm the commitment of the central government, through the Ministry of Health, to continue to work with regional and local authorities, as well as the public, whose role in eradicating mosquito vector breeding sites is fundamental,” he said.
And he announced that the ministry would allocate a budget to local governments and that they would invest it in infection prevention and spread work to combat the disease.
In 2024, the number of dengue cases in Peru will be 24,981, which means growth by 97.88% compared to the same period last year, while There are only 28 deaths from this diseaseThis is evidenced by data from the Ministry of Health published this Thursday.
Six people died in the department of La Libertad, whose capital is Trujillo, the country’s third city, five in Ancash, three in Lima and two in Ica.
In terms of the number of cases, the departments of La Libertad (4,207), Piura (4,155), Ica (3,313), Ancash (2,462), San Martin (1,633) and Lima (1,495) have the most cases.
There are only two regions where no cases have been detected: Moquegua and Arequipa.
In general, the northern and coastal departments suffer the most from dengue, a disease that spreads more when heatedand it is in these areas that the highest temperatures have been reached in recent weeks.
The Ministry of Health clarified that of the cases registered in 2024, 44.9% were detected in men and 55.1% in women.