Mauricio Rios, 52, has been cleaning Buenos Aires' subways for 20 years and has never seen anything like this. A huge, noisy swarm of mosquitoes swirling in a dark cloud the length of the Piedras station platform.
Rios pulled out his cell phone and filmed the growing herd for 30 minutes, then rushed to the break room to call his boss and shut down the station.
“Insects come down here mainly during the summer, attracted by the light, but they never congregate in such large numbers,” Rios said. “They showed up again the next day. We don't know what's going on. And from what we saw on the news, this isn't the only place.”
His video has gone viral as Argentina endures an unprecedented mosquito outbreak, which is believed to be responsible for a surge in dengue cases. Aedes aegypti seed.
According to the Ministry of Health, 74,555 dengue cases have been registered in the country since the beginning of the year, a significant 2,153% increase compared to the same period in 2023. Forty-seven people will die from dengue fever in 2024, and health officials expect the number of infections to continue to rise sharply in the coming weeks.
Symptoms of dengue fever include headache, high fever, vomiting, muscle and joint pain, pain behind the eyes, and skin rash. In some cases, dengue fever can become severe and even fatal, especially in people who have been infected multiple times.
Epidemiologist Hugo Pizzi, director of the Center for Tropical Diseases at the University of Córdoba, said the outbreak was caused by soaring temperatures in the country (a phenomenon he called “tropicalization”) and an increase in unseasonal rain.
“This is the perfect formula for mosquito reproduction,” he said. Pizzi added that human-induced climate change is now causing mosquitoes to appear in southern states that would have been unthinkable 25 years ago.
Mosquitoes bite people regardless of their social class, but the price of mosquito repellent has jumped 170% since December, when liberal President Javier Millay devalued the peso by 54% and removed all price controls. Therefore, preventive measures are becoming increasingly expensive. . The starting price for a 290 ml canister of the spray is 3,620 pesos ($4 at official rate, $3.60 at unofficial rate).
Last April, Argentine health authorities approved a dengue vaccine made by Japan's Takeda Research Institute that protects against all four dengue serotypes, but its price makes it far from available to most people in the country. A Ministry of Health spokesperson said there were currently no plans to make the vaccine available to the public as the government believes further trials are needed.
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Milley's government has blamed former President Alberto Fernández for the spread of the virus, saying he failed to educate the public about the risks. Milley's campaign manager, Fernando Cherimedo, also offered no evidence that Bill Gates intentionally released the mosquitoes to harm the new government and profit from the dengue vaccine. Suggested by X instead.
Pizzi said many Argentines still do not take this dire situation seriously, urging the public to clean their gardens, eliminate excess water, mow grass and weeds, and protect their children with mosquito nets. I called out. “Little children are defenseless,” he said.
In January, a three-month-old infant died from dengue fever in the northern province of Misiones.
Pizzi called on the Argentine government and the people in general to step up their efforts in the fight against dengue fever and the insects that transmit it. “We cannot be intimidated by mosquitoes and small creatures like this,” he said.
