S. America, Caribbean Nations Brace For Dengue - 146,000 Cases YTD - 2X 2009 Total - AFP

[hatrack]

Health officials in Latin America report an earlier than usual outbreak of potentially deadly dengue fever, and are bracing this year for a particularly virulent outbreak of the mosquito-borne tropical disease. The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) said so far it has logged some 146,000 cases in the first three months of the year, of which 79 have been fatal. This time last year there were some 79,000 cases of dengue reported, with 26 deaths.

Health authorities already have declared epidemics in some Central American and Caribbean countries, and say the spread of the disease has been aided by climate changes.

"The year 2010 will be complicated, notably because of climactic factors like the El Nino phenomenon," said Romeo Montoya, part of a team of doctors who track the Aedes aegypti mosquito which transmits the disease. Dengue fever symptoms include high temperatures and muscle aches. In extreme cases, hemorrhaging and death can follow.

There is no known vaccine, but officials said they are in the process of developing one, and hope to have it ready in about five years. According to the PAHO, the countries likely to be hardest hit by this year's outbreak are Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Latin_America_braces_for_deadly_dengue_epidemic_999.html

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. And how long before it's spreading along the Gulf coast of Florida,

Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas?

We could be seeing 'tropical' diseases all the way up to the mid-Atlantic states before too long, carried in by mosquitoes caught in tropical storms.

[shraby]

2. It's been moving into the most southern states for some

time now. Read about it a few years ago in Scientific American.