Dengue Fever Hits Key West

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sandy

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More than two dozen cases of locally-acquired dengue fever have hit the resort town of Key West, FL. Although not the first cases of home-grown dengue in the U.S., or even in Florida, the outbreak highlights the need for physician vigilance regarding this and other formerly exotic tropical diseases.

"The re-emergence of dengue in Florida as well as the threat posed to the U.S. from other emerging mosquito-borne arboviruses (e.g., chikungunya) emphasizes the necessity for strong vector-borne surveillance and mosquito control infrastructure to rapidly identify and control outbreaks of dengue or other mosquito-borne diseases"...

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/dengue-fever-hits-key-west/story?id=10703442

It is endemic in the Western Hemisphere from Mexico southward. Most cases seen by U.S. physicians have involved travelers to such regions.
 
Good post Sandy. Dengue is a serious problem in parts of Brazil. Not much in Sao Paulo, where I live or further south, (outside of the tropics). Brazilians are much richer now than a few years ago. Travel to the US has more than doubled. Middle class families now take their kids to Disney Land in Florida.* I don't know, but suspect that DNA etc. testing can tell where the new cases came from.
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*There has been some discussion about building a Disney Land near Rio. The world football cup (soccer to Americans) in 2014 and the summer Olympics in 2016 will make a lot of new hotels etc. The Question is who will fill them in 2015 & 2017? Brazil is very serious now about a high speed train between Sao Paulo and Rio too - surely will have one before the US does but it will definitely be too late for the world cup and probably too late even for the Olympics. Sao Paulo is the fourth largest city in the world by some counts but close to tie with Mexico City which also claims that.
 
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Omega133 said:
Great. I live in Florida. Is it just in Key West?
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The good news is it will not kill you (if otherwise strong and healthy). It may may make you wish you were dead for a few days.

Mosquitoes don't fly very far from where they emerged from the water. (During winds they stay down in the grass.)* Keeping you neighborhood free of stagnant water can help a lot. Intensive campaigns of spraying and public education drives to get rid of old tires, bottles, cans etc. in some Brazilian "hot spots" have worked.

Brazil has a good preventive medicine system. Free vaccines, medical buses that go out into the country side with nurses who measure blood pressure, give out free pills, etc. The financial assistance given to the poor (called Bolsa Familia), requires that all kids under 18 stay in school and get their vaccines etc. It more than pays for its self - immediately in reduced health care costs and long term, like the GI bill did, in more productive tax-paying citizens. It also has a great "multiplier effect" in rural cities - many who never had any money now are buying things there. Selling their horse for a motor bike etc.

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* They find you by the tail of high level CO2 you make in calm air when you exhale. I.e. they fly up the concentration gradient. Even mild wind destroys that, so they wait the wind out before going hunting (only the females). Often at dusk the winds do die down and out they come.
 
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Billy T said:
The good news is it will not kill you (if otherwise strong and healthy). It may may make you wish you were dead for a few days.

Mosquitoes don't fly very far from where they emerged from the water. (During winds they stay down in the grass.) Keeping you neighborhood free of stagnant water can help a lot. Intensive campaigns of spraying and public education drives to get rid of old tires, bottles, cans etc. in some Brazilian "hot spots" have worked.
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Is there a cure/medicine to help fight it off?
 
I have had Dengue fever. I don't know which of the four strains I had. I am not very scared of Dengue though it is no fun to be sick with Dengue.

A friend got Chikungunya. That scares me more because a small but significant percentage of people end up with joint pain for years from Chikungunya.

Both diseases can kill people but rarely kill healthy people.

Apparently I am more vulnerable to dying from Dengue that people who never had it because what kills is not the disease but rather an immune system overreaction that is more likely to occur if you have had Dengue previously.

Aedes Aegypti is the primary mosquito involved in spreading these diseases. Humans are the primary host for this mosquito. This is a mosquito that does well in urban environments and could produce generations of mosquitos within a modern suburban house. These mosquito eggs can't hatch in cold weather but they can wait dormant for a year until it is warmer and until water arrives.


Aedes Albopictus is the other mosquito that spreads these diseases.

Map below Blue: Areas infested with Aedes Aegypti. Red: Areas with Aedes aegypti and recent epidemic dengue fever.
Dengue06.jpg


Below, map of Aedes Albopictus range. Green color is it's non-native range.

Albopictus_distribution_2007.png


Aedes triseriatus is an American mosquito that lays eggs in similar places to Albopictus, and Aegypti and it's larvae will eat their larvae if it is hungry. This mosquitos main enemy may be Toxorhynchites mosquitos.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxorhynchites

Toxorhynchites
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Toxorhynchites
Toxorhynchites speciosus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Family: Culicidae
Genus: Toxorhynchites
Theobald, 1901
Species

See text.

Toxorhynchites, also known as mosquito hawks or mosquito eaters, are a cosmopolitan genus and one of the few kinds of mosquito that do not suck blood. Rather, the adults subsist on nectar and other[clarification needed] natural carbohydrates. Their larvae prey on the larvae of other mosquitoes.

The name apparently comes from the Greek toxo meaning arrow and rhynch meaning snout.

Most species occur in forests. The larvae of one jungle variety, Toxorhynchites splendens, consume larvae of other mosquito species occurring in tree crevices, particularly Aedes aegypti. The adults of these mosquitoes are larger than Aedes and are harmless to humans.

Disease vector or toxin control researchers have suggested that Toxorhynchites mosquitoes be introduced to areas outside their natural range in order to fight dengue fever.
 
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