McClatchy: Tropical disease headed toward U.S., health officials warn

[babylonsister]

Tropical disease headed toward U.S., health officials warn
By Tony Pugh | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008


WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials are warning that a sometimes-deadly tropical disease that's spread by mosquitoes is re-emerging worldwide and could gain a foothold in the U.S. one day.

Dengue, a flu-like illness that infects 50 million to 100 million people a year, has been growing more prevalent and severe as it moves from tropical regions into more temperate areas such as Puerto Rico, where it's now endemic, and along the U.S. border with Mexico.

An estimated 21 people are thought to have died from dengue fever last year in Puerto Rico, where the number of cases jumped to more than 10,000 in 2007 from about 3,000 the year before, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 30,000 cases were reported in Mexico last year.

Despite these and other sporadic outbreaks, dengue (pronounced DENG-ee) hasn't established itself in the continental United States. But a number of factors suggest that one day it could.

Expanded migration of a mosquito that transmits the disease, increased urbanization, and rising temperatures and rainfall — possibly caused by global warming — have helped fuel an alarming global resurgence of the disease. This increases the likelihood that it could strike even harder in the U.S.

The CDC estimates that 100 to 200 cases each year are introduced into the United States by travelers.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/24581.html

[Gruenemann]

1. A kid we know in Brownsville, TX had dengue. eom

[hfojvt]

2. rising rainfall? I thought global warming was causing drought.

21 deaths in 10,000 cases does not sound very scary though. Not like the inevitable bird flu :scared:

[defendandprotect]

4. GW will cause drought and FLOODS . . . the earth in balance --- !!!

[Elidor]

3. Ugh

My stepfather had Dengue during WWII. He uses its nickname, "breakbone fever" because, as he says, "It feels like all your bones are breaking." He says it was the only time he ever truly wished he could die. It sounds like a spectacularly horrid illness, much worse than your average flu.

[Igel]

5. We used to have yellow fever and malaria.

In Africa malaria and dengue have about the same range, so there's no reason we couldn't have had dengue in the SE US in the 1800s (when malaria was a problem). Yellow fever was apparently kicking about since the 1500s ... until after WWII, probably.

Global warming's contribution wouldn't be "presence possible", which is sort of implied by the reporter, but "extension of possible range". But the same holds for malaria and yellow fever (thank you, DDT).

[kineneb]

7. and have West Nile

...with all those abandoned swimming pools (forclosures in CA), looks like next summer should be "interesting"...

...perhaps lots of Deet or herbal preparation would be a good thing to have around...

...buzzzzz

[walldude]

6. Lemme guess.. Someone in the Bush administration

happens to have stock in the company that has the vaccine for this...