According to the National Institute of Public Health Research (Inspi), the DENV-3 serotype had not been detected before in Ecuador.

The virus has mutated and has arrived from Colombia and Peru. The provinces with cases of this type of dengue are Esmeraldas and Cotopaxi, however, the most affected are Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Manabí, Los Ríos, Guayas, El Oro, Morona Santiago and part of the province of Cañar, this could be because climate change has caused many of these temperate zones to become subtropical, the Deputy Secretary of Surveillance, Prevention and Health Control, Ricardo Vizueta explained during statements to Teleamazonas channel.

Ecuador has registered 11,492 dengue fever patients to date, a figure higher than in previous years, when in the first months of 2023 there were no more than 4,000 cases and in 2022 16,000 people were diagnosed with the virus.

So far, official data indicate that 15 people have died, 6 adults and 9 children.

jrr/jav/mem/nta