Dengue has already claimed its first victim in Ecuador

According to the Ministry of Public Health (MSP for its Spanish acronym), an 11 year old boy is the first fatal victim of dengue in the country so far in 2013, while the number of sick people increases.

Prevention campaigns are being held all around Ecuador.

From January 1 until today, there have been 476 cases in fourteen provinces, said Norma Armas, national secretary of Public Health Surveillance.

Of the total cases this year, three are hermorrhagic. One of them was the child who died in Los Rios.

The child died on January 17. His health became complicated because he was self-medicated, said Julio Palomeque, technical director of the National Service of Arthropod-transmit Disease Control (SNEM).