Dengue Fever Surge In South America Prompts Increased Vaccination Efforts, Bug Spray Shortages

Reuters (1/25, Elliott, Brito) reports, “South America is seeing a surge in cases of the mosquito-borne disease dengue during the southern hemisphere summer, prompting Brazil to roll out a novel vaccine campaign, while in Argentina many stores have run out of bug spray.” This month, Brazil “started spraying insecticide from trucks as the disease rips through previously unaffected regions.” Meanwhile “Argentina has recorded over 12,500 cases of the disease in the last month, according to the latest official health bulletin, a big jump versus the same period a year ago.”