Gestión del dengue y sus complicaciones en los sistemas de salud de América Latina.

Resumen

Introduction: Dengue continues to strain health systems in Latin America because of its interannual variability and the healthcare demands generated by its complications. This requires monitoring not only the disease burden but also outcomes sensitive to management performance. This analysis compared the impact and complications of dengue in 2024–2025 across four Latin American subregions, as defined by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), through epidemiological week 52.

Methods: We used a quantitative, observational, ecological approach, collecting data annually from pooled PLISA/ARBO data. The dataset includes a census of the four subregions from which we retrieved the data. We cleaned indicators using a spreadsheet extraction matrix to calculate the proportion of severe dengue and case fatality rates (deaths/cases × 100), as well as hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results: Across the group of countries, the regional composite case fatality rate decreased compared with the 2024 estimates (RR 0.78; 95% CI 0.75–0.82), as did severe dengue (RR 0.90; 95% CI 0.88–0.92), despite continued subregional heterogeneity. Both case fatality rate and severity were higher in the Andean subregion (RR 1.24; 95% CI 1.07–1.44) and the Andean subregion (RR 1.40; 95% CI 1.33–1.47), respectively.

Conclusions: The subregional assessment of severity and case fatality rate provides operational signals to improve management, optimize resource availability, adapt triage and referral pathways, and maintain a robust response.