Dengue in the Americas

At a glance

Four counts - four questions

Regional surveillance reported 4,459,521 suspected dengue cases across the Americas during epidemiological weeks 1-53 of 2025. Of those reports, 1,682,588 were confirmed and 8,966 were classified as severe. PAHO also recorded 2,207 deaths. The figures belong in the same evidence story, but they are not four separate populations.

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1. Suspected cases are the broad reporting denominator

Suspected cases are surveillance reports that meet the source reporting definition. They are not an estimate of every dengue infection, and the validated WSI package does not adjust for under-ascertainment. Confirmed cases are a subset of suspected reports. Severe cases are also a subset of reported suspected cases. They should not be added to the suspected total.

In the 2025 regional controls, confirmed cases were about 37.7% of suspected cases. Severe cases were about 0.20%, or about 20 severe cases per 10,000 suspected reports. Both shares are shown on the same percentage scale below.

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2. Rounded country highlights show concentration, not a complete ranking

PAHO's annual overview reported approximately 3.8 million cases in Brazil, 145,000 in Mexico, 125,000 in Colombia, 48,000 in Guatemala, 39,000 in Peru, and about 300,000 across other countries and territories. The values are rounded contextual highlights. The validated package does not contain a canonical 2025 country table or a confirmed list of the 46 reporting members, so WSI does not publish a country ranking.

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3. Deaths and case-fatality answer outcome questions

Deaths are not another case category. They are outcomes reported separately from nonfatal cases. PAHO's regional case-fatality rate was 0.05%. The validated controls reproduce that rounded result: 2,207 reported deaths divided by 4,459,521 reported suspected cases equals 0.04949%.

The severe-case share asks a different question. It is 8,966 severe cases divided by the same suspected-case denominator, or about 20.1 per 10,000. The death rate shown here is about 4.95 per 10,000 reported suspected cases. These are surveillance ratios, not population incidence or mortality rates.

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What the figures can - and cannot - tell us

The regional controls show the scale and composition of reported dengue surveillance in 2025. They support a clear distinction among reported cases, confirmed cases, severe cases, deaths, and ratios derived from those counts. They do not estimate total infections, establish population incidence, or support a complete country ranking.

PAHO reported that cases fell by 66% and deaths by 74% from the record 2024 year. Those changes are useful context, but the current Data Story remains focused on the meaning of the 2025 measures rather than building a new trend analysis.