10,000 Cases Of Dengue In Puerto Rico In 2007 - Cases Reported In Texas, Hawaii - Seattle Times

[hatrack]

EDIT

Thus far, cases of dengue fever in North America — where disease scientists thought they had conquered it 30 years ago — have tended to be scattered and affect relatively few people. But increased travel to and from South America, where a resurgence has made dengue widespread, is thought to be boosting the disease's spread northward. And some experts suspect climate change is aggravating the problem.

"It's starting to creep up from South America to the Caribbean," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "If it can occur right at the tip of Texas, a disease which maybe people never heard of could actually appear here."

EDIT

There is no vaccine against dengue, nor is there a drug that can cure it, although a race to develop both seems to be gathering momentum. Doctors rely on the patient's immune system to fight off the virus, and most people who get the less-virulent forms of the virus recover, although many have the pains that have given dengue its nickname, breakbone fever. Hawaii had an outbreak in 2001. Puerto Rico had 10,000 cases last year, and in recent years there have been several cases on the Texas side of the U.S.-Mexico border. Manzanarez apparently contracted the disease on a vacation in Mexico; she died May 9, 2005.

All four types of dengue are found in the Americas, and the two types of mosquitoes that transmit it are present in the U.S. Dengue cannot be passed directly from person to person. After biting an infected person, a mosquito transfers the virus when it bites a healthy person. Theoretically, an infected traveler who returns from South America could spark an outbreak here. The likelihood of such a scenario developing is the subject of a spirited debate among scientists. So is the role that global warming might play in expanding the range of the two mosquito species that carry the virus: Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (also called the Asian tiger mosquito).

EDIT

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004144327_dengue25.html

[phantom power]

1. Picture, if you will...

a North America hobbled by economic and/or environmental catastrophe, where there is insufficient economic strength to fund an effective CDC, and where the middle class has descended into 3rd-world status. No health care, no reliable access to sanitation, etc.

Now picture how fast something like dengue would spread in an environment like that.

[pitohui]

2. there is no cure or vaccine for dengue fever

whether the cdc is effective or not, or whether you are middle class or poor, this isn't what is promoting the spread of dengue, it's the warming climate -- being middle class makes no difference in your chance of getting the disease since there is no preventative the middle class person can buy (unlike with malaria)

so i think it is spreading about as fast as it can spread

i'm afraid when i go into an area where dengue is possible, i just use bug spray and hope for the best, in a case of a disease that can't be prevented or protected against, there is really not much use worrying about things that can't be helped

it would be great if research would result in a cure/prophylaxis but i'm not holding my breath

[NNadir]

3. Scary.

[Nihil]

4. How come that other insects don't transmit it?

> ... the two types of mosquitoes that transmit it ...

How come there are only two that transmit it when it uses a transferral
mechanism? (i.e., the disease doesn't come from the mosquito itself but
is just moved from an infected person to a healthy person)

:shrug:

I'm admittedly ignorant about such matters but it just sounds odd that
if a mosquito can make this transfer, other biting insects (indeed other
species of mosquito) can't do the same thing.

Can some knowledgeable DUer please explain it in nice simple terms for me?

TIA.