Abstract

Introduction: Dengue is caused by the DENV virus, which is a single-stranded RNA virus of the flaviviridae family, transmitted by Aedes vectors. There are four main serotypes of this virus: DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3 and DENV-4. This virus has impacted global public health, especially the Eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Western Pacific, and South America. In Brazil, the progression of the disease is a cause for constant concern and demonstrates a current growth trend. Methodology: An exploratory, cross-sectional and descriptive epidemiological study of time series (2015 to 2024) was carried out, with data from DATASUS - SUS Information System, of the Ministry of Health, Brazil. Results: There were n=16122017 reported cases of dengue in Brazil from 2015 to 2024, with an initial oscillating trend, but a continuous increasing trend since 2021, which peaked in 2024 (n=6452721) cases. More frequent in females with n=8838100 cases. The 20-39 age group had n=5828337 cases. The race was variable by region, being more frequent in the brown race in the Northeast, Midwest and North regions and more prevalent in the white race in the South and Southeast regions. The Unknown/white serotype was more prevalent. The unknown/white serotype was the most frequent (n=15839881), followed by DEN 1 (n=199796). Regarding the evolution, there was a predominance of unknown/ white (n=3578656), followed by cure (n=12526508), deaths from dengue (n=12213) cases. Hospitalizations occurred in n=489729 reported cases of dengue. Final considerations: Dengue in Brazil is a highly worrying epidemic, the exorbitant number of cases presented in 2024, demonstrating a continuous growing trend since 2021, is something that raises a public health alert and demonstrates difficulties for the Brazilian health system in preventing this disease.

Keywords

epidemiology, dengue fever, Brazil