Dengue death toll rises to 24 in Honduras

Dengue hemorrhagic fever has claimed 24 lives so far this year in Honduras, local media quoted Health Minister Salvador Pineda as saying on Wednesday. The minister confirmed the new death toll following the death of three people in different parts of the country, including Olancho in the east, Copan in the west and Cortes in the north. He said that up to the first week of September this year, 25,348 cases of dengue have been reported, among which 3,346 are suspected of being of the more dangerous hemorrhagic variety. Still, the number of new cases being reported decreased in comparison with the previous months, he said. The areas which are most seriously affected by the disease are Cortes, Olancho, Choluteca, Atlantida, Comayagua, Yoro, La Paz, Santa Barbara, El Paraiso, Intibuca and Islas de la Bahia, and Francisco Morazan, Xinhua reported. On Aug. 7, the Ministry of Health reported 17 deaths from the mosquito-borne disease. In 2009, there were only 12 deaths from hemorrhagic dengue, including eight adults and four minors, and 66,700 suspected cases of classic dengue, of which 3,200 were confirmed. In 2011 and 2012, no hemorrhagic cases were reported in the country, though a year earlier, in 2010, 83 people died from the disease.