REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, RIO DE JANEIRO -- The number of dengue fever cases in Brazil is expected to further increase, Health Minister Arthur Chioro said Monday.

"We have 745,000 registered cases from January to April 18, and we know that these figures will increase, because new reports keep coming. Brazil has a situation of epidemic, concentrated in nine states," Chioro said.

Brazil registered a high number of dengue cases this year, but the majority of them are located in Sao Paulo state, the most populated in the South American nation. The cases in Sao Paulo amount to about half of the cases registered in the entire country.

In other eight states, the incidence of dengue this year also reached epidemic level. According to the World Health Organization, an incidence of 300 cases for every 100,000 inhabitants can be considered an epidemic.

Chioro urged the country's hospitals to keep vigilant and asked the population to collaborate with government agents who visit households in an effort to identify areas in which Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits dengue, can be reproducing.

Dengue is a potentially lethal disease. Brazil has registered four types of dengue, and a person can have each one of them one time. In addition, the Aedes aegypti mosquito also transmits other diseases, such as yellow fever, chikungunya fever and zika virus, all of which have been registered in Brazil.

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