Aedes Albopictus Photo Credit CDC PHIL
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In a follow up to a blog from last Thursday (see U.S. Issues Dengue Warning For The Bahamas) we’ve more reports on the increasing number of suspected and confirmed Dengue cases in the Bahamas, and attempts to bring the outbreak under control.
The Nassau Guardian reported late last week that the Bahamas had recorded a record number of Dengue cases – estimated at over 1,500 – and that roughly 100 new suspect cases were showing up every day.
Record number of Dengue fever cases
More than 1,500 so far as public health care system is stretched to the limit
Chester Robards
Published: Aug 11, 2011
Local governments have been attempting to control the outbreak with mosquito fogging, and yesterday the Freeport news ran an editorial Recognizing the seriousness of dengue fever that implored residents to take part in helping to eradicate mosquito breeding grounds.
Similarly, Acting Minister of Environment Phenton Neymour asked residents to get rid of mosquito breeding spots, stating that fogging won’t correct the problem until the numerous breeding sites in urban areas are removed.
Residents urged to get rid of breeding grounds for mosquitoes
Published On:Saturday, August 13, 2011
The Florida Keys, which last year saw more than 60 locally acquired cases of Dengue, mounts a similar campaign in mosquito awareness. This year, in contrast, they’ve not reported any locally acquired cases of dengue.
Last week, Florida reported a couple of imported Dengue cases (Martin & Marion Counties), and one suspected household transmission of the virus (see Borne In The USA).
Testing has now confirmed that in the Martin County case - a traveler recently returned from the Caribbean developed dengue fever – and subsequently a second household member who had not traveled abroad, had contracted the virus.
First locally contracted case of dengue fever in Martin County confirmed
08/11/2011
Christin Erazo
Every year hundreds of travelers from countries where mosquito borne illnesses are endemic develop symptoms after they return to the United States. While the odds of those diseases being transmitted on are fairly low, they are not zero.
In mid-June of 2010 the MMWR came out with a new report on Travel Associated Dengue in the United States between 2006 and 2008.
This surveillance pre-dates the Key West outbreak, and as the study reports, `Clinically recognized cases of travel-associated dengue likely underestimate the risk for importation because many dengue infections are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic’.
The link is Travel-Associated Dengue Surveillance --- United States, 2006—2008.
The explosive growth of Dengue around the world is well illustrated by the following graph from the World Health Organization.
What this graph doesn’t indicate is another doubling of dengue cases has taken place over the past 5 years.
For now, major outbreaks of Dengue, Chikungunya, Malaria, or Yellow Fever remain unlikely in the United States and Europe.
Conditions that are conducive to these kinds of epidemics, however, continue to evolve; Dense urban populations, climate change, increased international travel, and the expanding range of mosquito vectors.
Florida, after all, went 60 years without seeing locally acquired cases of Dengue, only to have it reemerge in 2009 in Key West.
Puerto Rico, which this time last year was in the middle of a major dengue epidemic, is seeing very low activity this year.
Across the rest of South America, Central America, and the Caribbean dengue activity varies considerably, with more than 700,000 cases and 400 deaths reported in 2011.
The chart below is gleaned from the latest PAHO Dengue surveillance report.
While the odds of contracting dengue from mosquito bites in the United States remains very low - if you visit or live in mosquito territory – it is worth remembering Florida Department of Health’s, (FDOH)
recommendation that individuals protect themselves by following the “5 D’s”.
