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RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- At least 794 people in Brazil died of the mosquito-borne diseases dengue, chikungunya and the Zika virus in 2016, the Ministry of Health said on Monday.
Most of the victims died due to dengue (629 deaths), followed by chikungunya (159) and Zika (6).
The figure is an improvement over the year before, when the diseases claimed a total of 1,001 lives.
Last year, the number of dengue cases was the second-highest recorded since 1990, when dengue was first reported in Brazil.
Chikungunya appears to be on the rise, with 265,554 cases reported last year, while its number of fatal victims rose by 1.035 percent, going from 14 to 159.
The figures show the incidence rate of chikungunya rose to 129.9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2016.
Zika, first detected in Brazil in April 2015, registered an incidence rate of 104.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
