The Americanistas

The Argentine government believes a perfect storm of factors is causing a growing national epidemic of dengue fever with some 15,000 confirmed victims. The culprits? National Health Minister Graciela Ocaño says it’s the combined effects of global warming, deforestation and uncontrolled urbanization.

But Humberto Bravo, president of a medical school in Chaco province, which has been hit hardest by the epidemic with 8,100 documented cases, adds another factor: “Some people say, and everything appears to indicate they’re right, that the map of dengue coincides with the map of soy.”

The theory that all these factors are related to the epidemic goes something like this: Deforestation is caused by farmers trying to make way for vast soy plantations, which along with global warming is causing the “tropicalization” of the local environment in northeast Argentina, according to Bravo. The warming causes the prolongation of summer seasons, extending the life-cycles of mosquitoes, which transmit the disease, and accelerating the disease’s incubation period, causing dengue to spread much faster. Finally, the soy expansion has also led to rapid urbanization in small and intermediary cities as plantations push small-scale farmers to leave the countryside. These farmers swell the shantytowns, where sanitation is poor (open sewers, no potable water, etc.)

Unprecedented dengue epidemics have also broken out in Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay, which are also big soy producers, though dengue is traditionally more common in these countries than it is in Argentina. Still, authorities say they are facing a severe and worsening health crisis. Bolivian health authorities say they are facing the worst outbreak in 22 years, with over 56,000 cases. Brazil reported 114,000 cases in the first 10 weeks of this year alone.

Although a direct link between soy and dengue has yet to be confirmed, to my knowledge, it certainly seems plausible.