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
Austrian man arrested in Croatia with deceased woman as passenger in his car
A 65-year-old Austrian citizen was arrested at a border checkpoint in Croatia after attempting to enter the country in his car with a deceased woman sitting as a passenger, police announced on Tuesday.
The man was detained in a routine check in late November in Gunja, a border area separating Bosnia from Croatia, the police told AFP. Suspicious because they saw “no consciousness or movement” from the passenger, Croatian officers called a doctor, who confirmed the death of the 83-year-old woman, also Austrian, according to her identification.
The woman’s relationship to the suspect is unknown. She had died in Bosnia, and the man intended to repatriate her body to Austria to “avoid the formalities related to transporting a corpse,” according to the police. Croatian media reported that the man was her legal guardian.
Once her death was confirmed, a funeral service took charge of the body.
International
Colombian nationals arrested for human trafficking and disappearance of migrant boat
Colombian authorities arrested two nationals accused of the illegal trafficking of migrants to the United States and of endangering lives due to the disappearance of a boat with 40 people aboard, U.S. Department of Justice officials reported on Tuesday.
Hernando Manuel de la Cruz Rivera Orjuela, 52, and Luis Enrique Linero Pinto, 40, both Colombian citizens, were arrested on December 13 in Colombia at the request of the United States for their alleged involvement in a “transnational human trafficking operation,” the department said in a statement.
According to the charges, the detainees were transporting migrants to San Andrés Island in the Caribbean, where they would then be taken by boat to Nicaragua. The goal was to reach the United States through Central America and Mexico.
The accused are said to have advised the migrants on how to reach San Andrés Island, where they personally received them, arranged accommodations, and “took them to the boats that transported them to Nicaragua so they could enter the United States illegally,” the statement reads.
“These defendants put several migrants on the boat that disappeared off the coast of Nicaragua in 2023,” said Deputy Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, as cited in the statement.
Both men are “directly and personally responsible for the illicit trafficking of migrants on that vessel,” according to the indictment dated October 23.
International
Homemade landmine explosion in Michoacán kills two soldiers, injures five
Two soldiers were killed and five others were injured by the explosion of homemade landmines planted by a criminal group in a mountainous area of the Mexican state of Michoacán (west), the Secretary of Defense reported on Tuesday.
The attack occurred on Monday morning in the municipality of Cotija, a border area between Michoacán and the state of Jalisco, when the military was conducting a reconnaissance mission after receiving information about an armed camp in the area, explained Secretary General Ricardo Trevilla.
“At that moment, an improvised explosive device detonated. Unfortunately, two soldiers lost their lives, and five others were injured,” the military leader detailed. The affected soldiers were airlifted to hospitals in the region by a military helicopter, while the rest of the team continued with the reconnaissance of the area.
Trevilla stated that before the explosion, the military unit had located the dismembered bodies of three people, and upon continuing the mission, they confirmed the camp was abandoned.
Asked about the individuals responsible for placing the explosives, the general suggested they could be criminals linked to the local group Cárteles Unidos, which operates in Michoacán and uses these tactics in their territorial dispute with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the country.
Austrian man arrested in Croatia with deceased woman as passenger in his car
Colombian nationals arrested for human trafficking and disappearance of migrant boat
Homemade landmine explosion in Michoacán kills two soldiers, injures five
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