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Description of the Event
What happened, where and when?
On 11 October, the Ministry of Health formally extended a request for interinstitutional collaboration to the Costa Rican Red Cross. This was done following discussions which started in ending -September on opportunities for collaboration in response to the preventive health alert for dengue.
Dengue is the arbovirus with the highest number of cases reported in the Region of the Americas, and outbreaks occurring cyclically every 3 to 5 years. The four dengue virus serotypes (DENV1, DENV2, DENV3, and DENV4) are present in this sub-region. In 2023, the simultaneous circulation of all four was detected in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
The increase in dengue cases in Costa Rica has been a cause for concern among health authorities, largely attributed to the growing mosquito population. Contributing factors include favorable weather conditions characterized by warmth and humidity, and the proliferation of mosquito breeding sites. This escalation in dengue cases became evident in the final weeks of August 2023, prompting the Ministry of Health to declare a nationwide preventive health alert for dengue on 6 September 2023 (1).
Up to EW 39 (ending on 30 September) of 2023, a total of 14,403 dengue cases have been officially reported (2) in country. These cases, recorded up to the 39th epidemiological week, show a significant 62% increase compared to the 5,475 cases reported during the same period in 2022 (3). In response to this, the Ministry of Health has been actively seeking the support of the entire population and has called for a nationwide alliance to combat dengue. Simultaneously, they have implemented a series of strategies to prevent the spread of the disease-carrying mosquito. These strategies include the fumigation of residential properties and vacant lots, the treatment of water tanks, and the initiation of control and mitigation measures.
The call for collaborative efforts with the National Society is focused on jointly conducting activities that include public education and awareness campaigns for preventive measures, eliminating mosquito breeding sites, involving volunteers in field applications of larvicides, and supplying essential resources like insecticides to support spraying campaigns. These collaborative efforts are primarily directed at the provinces of Limón (Huetar Caribe region), Puntarenas (North Central region), Alajuela (Central Pacific region), and Heredia (Chorotega region), as these regions report a higher incidence of dengue cases up to EW 39, as detailed in Table 1.
To note, in 2022, according to the Epidemiological Alert issued on 15 September by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), between epidemiological week (EW) 1 and EW 52 (ending 31 December), there were 2,811,433 dengue cases reported, placing 2022 as the third highest year in terms of total dengue cases reported within a year.
In 2023, only between epidemiological week (EW) 1 and EW 35 (ending 2 September), there were 3,407,921 dengue cases reported in the region, with a cumulative incidence rate of 343 cases per 100,000 population. Furthermore, in the Central American Isthmus and Mexico only, a total of 226,183 dengue cases have been reported for the same period with a cumulative incidence rate of 123.6 cases per 100,000 population. Of this, 26,017 (11.5%) were laboratory confirmed and 577 (0.26%) were classified as severe dengue. The highest cumulative incidence rates were reported in: Nicaragua with 1,346.7 cases per 100,000 population, Belize with 1,009 per 100,000 population, Panama with 162.2 cases per 100,000 population, and Honduras with 114.6 cases per 100,000 population (4).
Sources:
(1) https://tinyurl.com/AlertaSanitariaCR
(2) https://tinyurl.com/BoletinEpidemiologico39de2023
(3) https://tinyurl.com/BoletinEpidemiologico40de2022
(4) https://tinyurl.com/EpidemiologicalAlertPAHO