The authors, José Narro Robles, then Undersecretary of Health, and Héctor Gómez-Dantés, Director of Epidemiological Research, already explained the first causes of the reintroduction and increase of dengue.
Some of the factors are related to the process of industrialization, accompanied by a strong migration from the countryside to the city, the expansion of urban areas, the growth of tourist complexes in coastal areas, in addition to tourism and human migration.
They also believe that the excessive increase in the production of manufactured goods, namely plastic bottles, jars, tires and cans, has had an influence. Objects that, when abandoned, can retain water and have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
There is a direct relationship between climate change and the habitats or niches of some vectors,”
Carlos Welsh, coordinator of the Center for Sciences at the University of Veracruz
In addition, during the following years the strategy against dengue focused on spraying with insecticides, although the evidence questions its impact. The population of female mosquitoes (they are the only ones that bite) varies from 0% to 73% on the first day of applying insecticide, but recovers between 3 and 11 days later.
Climate change and dengue
In 2012, dengue was classified as the most important mosquito-borne viral disease in the world, with the highest prevalence in the last 50 years, according to a study by researchers from the Autonomous University of Guadalajara, published in 2023.
