Argentina has logged more than 527,000 cases of dengue so far this year, 3.2 times more than last year, though cases have recently decreased, the country's Health Ministry said on Sunday.

In the first 28 weeks of this year, health officials reported 527,517 cases, or 97 percent of the total logged during the entire season starting in epidemiological week 31 of 2023, according to the ministry's latest National Epidemiological Bulletin.

The highest number of cases was logged in the central region, accounting for 60 percent of the total, compared with 24.9 percent for the northwest and 13 percent for the northeast.

Currently, the incidence rate stands at 1,157 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, declining for 14 weeks, said the report.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne illness that can be fatal. Its symptoms include a high fever, headache, vomiting, skin rash, and muscle and joint pain that can be so severe the disease has been called "break-bone" fever. In some cases it can cause a more severe hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding that can lead to death. So far 401 patients have died from dengue this year.

(Cover image: A worker sprays chemicals to combat mosquitoes that transmit dengue in a park in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 5, 2024. /CFP)