Too Early To Talk About An Epidemic Of Dengue Fever In The United States

Too Early To Talk About An Epidemic Of Dengue Fever In The United States.
Two more cases of dengue fever were reported by robustness officials in Florida this week, bringing the thorough to 46 confirmed cases since final September, but a acme domination vigour official said it's too early to say whether the mosquito-borne tropical disorder is gaining a foothold in the United States. "We don't be acquainted with how dengue got to Key West, and whether or not it's endemic," said Harold Margolis, primary of the dengue diverge of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in San Juan, PR manual. "It's only prospering to play out as we watch to see what happens during this warm, liquid period of time, which is when dengue is at its peak".

And "That's the obstreperous with a disease like this. You have to heed it but, at the same time, you also have to try to control it". The most low-class virus transmitted by mosquitoes, dengue causes up to 100 million infections and 25000 deaths worldwide each year zocor 50 mg. The blight is found mostly in tropical climates, and many parts of the world, including Central and South America and the Caribbean, are currently experiencing epidemics.

In Puerto Rico, for instance, there have been at least five deaths and more than 6000 suspected cases of dengue this year. Margolis said it's conceivable that the Florida outbreak is an separated incident. "We've seen this happen in other parts of the world, such as in northern Australia, where travelers exchange with the infection and originate dengue, it spreads for a years of time, and then it goes away".

In the United States, a smattering of locally acquired cases in Texas have been reported since 1980, and all of them have coincided with rotund outbreaks in neighboring Mexican cities. The rearmost dengue outbreak in Florida was 75 years ago, according to the CDC.

The virus typically causes flu-like symptoms such as extraordinary fever, headache, and achy muscles, bones and joints. Symptoms typically begin about two to seven days after being bitten. "It's also called breakbone fever, because some the crowd get extraordinarily horrible, stiff pains in their bones and joints," explained Dr Bert Lopansri, medical captain of the Loyola University Health System International Medicine and Traveler's Immunization Clinic, in Maywood, Ill. There is no panacea or vaccine, and in most cases the infirmity resolves on its own within a unite of weeks.

Some community who compact the virus have comparatively subdued symptoms and may not even realize they've been exposed, according to the CDC. In fact, when strength officials in Key West calm blood samples from 240 people in randomly selected households endure year, they found that 5 percent had dengue bustling in their systems or had antibodies to the virus, suggesting that they'd been infected within the quondam three months.

While dengue fever is not contagious, an infected human can act as a carrier and indirectly broadening the disease to another person (and possibly a new location) if he or she gets bitten by another mosquito, which then bites and infects someone else. There are four strains of dengue, and once you have been infected by one strain, you're at a greater imperil of developing a more weighty propriety of the disease if you're unlucky enough to get bitten by a mosquito infected with one of the other strains.

In Key West, the enormous the greater part of people infected with dengue have been residents rather than visitors, which is not surprising given the express habits of the type of mosquito that transmits the virus, according to Margolis. Aedes mosquitoes care for to live around households, eat during the early morning and late afternoon, and type in flowerpots and other small containers of water that people have around their houses.

Nevertheless, Margolis cautioned travelers to inculcate themselves about where the disease is, and the best ways to arrest it. "There's a lot of dengue in many parts of the world make right now. For instance, Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia all have very monstrous epidemics. So if you're going to be traveling to any of these places, you indigence to make sure you protect yourself". That includes using mosquito repellants and wearing eat one's heart out pants and long sleeves as much as possible.

According to Lopansri, the most remarkable mosquito repellents contain either DEET or picaridin. Products that control citronella or other plant-based ingredients aren't as operative at repelling mosquitoes natural-breast shop. "And if you travel to an courtyard where outbreaks have been found and you then develop a fever, headache and body aches, be sure to recite your doctor".