International
Dengue will cover virtually all of Brazil and Mexico by 2039, according to a study
America is the continent most affected by dengue, with 8.1 million cases, and the situation will worsen in the coming years, according to a report that predicts that the infection will spread by 2039 to the practice the entire territory of Brazil and Mexico, the two largest countries in Latin America.
The research, published in the journal Nature Communications and in which scientists from Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Brazil and Mexico collaborated, predicts that by 2039 97% of the localities in Brazil will be affected by dengue, while in Mexico the figure will be 81%.
The analysis predicts that in Mexico the expansion of dengue will be mainly in the interior of the country, in the highest altitude areas of the central plateau.
The study estimates that the area of Tijuana, on the border with the United States, will be invaded between 2027 and 2030, and the area of Mexico City, between 2038 and 2039.
In Brazil, most of the areas invaded in the coming years will be in the south.
The situation is already alarming, according to experts from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) who met at the end of May in Washington, because so far this year, there are already three times more documented cases than the cases recorded in the same period of 2023. The deaths stand at 3,600.
The international team of researchers pointed out in their study that the spread of dengue, a febrile disease that is transmitted by the bite of a mosquito (Aedes aegypti) and that can cause difficulty breathing, severe bleeding and organ complications, will accelerate in the coming years due to the climate crisis and the greater mobility of the population.
The researchers used for the first time machine learning technology (known by artificial intelligence) to understand how the connection between areas and environmental conditions interact at the different stages of the infection, one of the scientists who participated in the study, Vinyas Harish, of the University of Toronto (Canada), told EFE.
“Many people have investigated environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, rain, to establish the relationship between those characteristics and mosquitoes,” Harish said.
“But to really understand how dengue affects the population, we needed to integrate that with data on the population’s mobility over time. We use machine learning to integrate those perspectives,” he added.
The data that the team used come from more than 8,000 municipalities in Brazil and Mexico during the past 25 years along with climate information, records of the appearance of epidemics and the history of genetic evolution.
In 1996, only 16 municipalities in Mexico (0.65% of the country’s total) were affected by dengue infection. But between 2000 and 2010, the infection expanded to 965 municipalities and by the end of 2019 the figure reached 1,350, 55% of the total.
In Brazil, the growth was similar. In 2001, dengue was only present in two states and 549 municipalities (9.96%). By 2019, the figure had exploded to 4,299 municipalities, 76.8%.
According to PAHO, there is no specific medicine to treat dengue, whose infection can occur without symptoms, or can be evidenced with symptoms ranging from a moderate fever to a high and incapacitating fever, headaches, muscle aches and rashes.
But Harish was optimistic since the conclusions of the study will allow the authorities to adopt preventive measures.
“From simple interventions, such as increasing awareness among the population to avoid the bites of these mosquitoes, to more complex, such as research on vaccines or mosquito replacement techniques,” he concluded.
International
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Monday requested that the Supreme Court restore his freedom while he appeals the historic 12-year house arrest sentence he received for bribery and procedural fraud.
Uribe, the most prominent figure of Colombia’s right wing, was convicted last week by a lower court for attempting to bribe paramilitary members into denying his ties to the violent anti-guerrilla squads.
Since Friday, the 73-year-old has been under house arrest at his residence in Rionegro, about 30 km from Medellín. The judge justified the measure by citing a risk of flight.
However, Uribe’s defense team rejected that argument and formally petitioned the court to immediately lift the detention order, claiming it lacks legal basis.
Uribe, a dominant force in Colombian politics for decades, is now the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted and placed under arrest, found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice to prevent links to paramilitary groups.
He has repeatedly denounced the trial as politically motivated, blaming pressure from the leftist government currently in power.
His political party, Centro Democrático, has called for nationwide protests on August 7 in support of Uribe, who remains popular for his hardline stance against guerrilla groups.
Uribe has until August 13 to submit his written appeal. The case will then move to the Bogotá High Court, which has until October 16 to uphold, overturn, or dismiss the sentence. If the deadline passes without a decision, the case will be archived.
International
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
The poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean is currently engulfed in a deep political crisis and a wave of violence driven by armed groups — a situation that an international security mission led by Kenya is attempting to stabilize.
Due to the worsening security conditions, the U.S. government has suspended all official movements of embassy personnel outside the compound in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. State Department announced Monday in a security alert posted on social media platform X.
“There are intense gunfights in the Tabarre neighborhood, near the U.S. Embassy,” the alert reads, urging the public to avoid the area.
Tabarre is a municipality located near Port-au-Prince International Airport, northeast of the Haitian capital.
According to a July report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 3,141 people were killed in Haitibetween January 1 and June 30 of this year.
International
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.
“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”
The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.
The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
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