Brazil puts hundreds of cities on dengue alert

Brazil has issued a dengue warning for at least 340 cities amid fears of an outbreak, the government said Thursday.

By March 7, the number of registered dengue cases increased 162 percent year-on-year, reaching 224,100, Health Minister Arthur Chioro told reporters.

While the infection rate of the mosquito-borne disease has sharply increased, its fatality rate dropped by 31.5 percent year-on-year, resulting in a total of 76 deaths in 2015, said Chioro.

Up to 18 of the country's 26 state capitals including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Belo Horizonte are put on alert for a possible outbreak.

Chioro also said there was a 9.7-percent decrease in the number of "serious" cases, compared to that of last year, with hospital admissions dropping by 44 percent.

Another kind of mosquito-borne disease affecting Latin America, Chikungunya, affected 1,049 people in Brazil by March 7. The total number of Chikungunya cases registered in 2014 was 2,773.

The Health Ministry has provided state health secretariats with 150 million reals (about 50 million U.S. dollars) to combat the diseases. Endi