国际英语新闻:Mexican president downplays alarm over dengue

MEXICO CITY, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday denied an increase in the number of dengue cases around the country was the cause for alarm.

"It is nothing out of the ordinary, dengue is not something that cannot be controlled," Lopez Obrador said a day after a report showed a sharp rise in Mexico's number of such cases.

"To be clear, this is not an alarming situation," he stressed.

On Monday, Mexico's Ministry of Health reported nearly 22,992 cases of dengue fever in the first nine months of this year, including 72 deaths.

In 2018, total confirmed cases were 13,333 and total deaths from dengue were 75.

On Saturday, Deputy Minister of Prevention and Health Promotion Hugo Lopez-Gatell met with representatives of the worst-hit states -- Veracruz, Jalisco, Morelos and Oaxaca, and discussed ways to tackle the spread of dengue.