# 7483
Last January in WHO: Neglected Tropical Diseases, we looked at a progress report on the global battle against NTDs (Neglected Tropical Diseases) that found – among other things – Dengue is the fastest spreading vector-borne viral disease today, having increased 30-fold around the world in the past 50 years.
Almost unheard of outside of a few tropical ports in the early 1950s - driven by the post WWII travel boom – dengue fever has now shown up in more than 60 countries.
This year Thailand is having a particularly bad time of it, having already reported 44 deaths, and nearly 40,000 infections. New cases are being diagnosed at a rate of over 500 each day.
This from Thailand’s National News Bureau (NNT):
44 dead from dengue fever; people with high fever urged to see doctor
BANGKOK, 11 June 2013 (NNT) – The Department of Disease Control has reiterated its concern over the dengue fever situation in Thailand, cautioning the public not to simply take pills for fever when high fever is present, and to instead visit the doctor.
Disease Control Department Director-General Phonthep Siriwanarangsan said the dengue fever situation is very worrisome because it is now the rainy season. In the past week, an average of 570 people become sick with the disease each day.
Since the beginning of the year, almost 40,000 people have fallen ill with the disease; 50% of this number were children under 15 years of age. 44 people have died from dengue fever so far this year.
On Saturday, the Bangkok Post reported that The Health Ministry expects between 100,000 – 120,000 infections this year – a record – and well above last year’s totals of 74,250 case (79 deaths).
Lest anyone think this is just Thailand’s problem, more than 20 million tourists visit the Land of Smiles each year, and some of them could return home with more than just a T-shirt and memories of a beautiful country.
In Travel-Associated Dengue Surveillance --- United States, 2006—2008, published in the summer of 2010, the MMWR came out with a new report on Travel Associated Dengue in the United States, that stated:
Clinically recognized cases of travel-associated dengue likely underestimate the risk for importation because many dengue infections are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic
The return of locally acquired dengue fever to Florida in 2009 - after an absence of 6 decades - was no doubt due to repeated introductions of the virus by travelers coming from countries where the virus is endemic.
The CDC’s MMWR in a report in May of 2010 on Locally Acquired Dengue in Key West, had this to say:
Cases of dengue in returning U.S. travelers have increased steadily during the past 20 years (8). Dengue is now the leading cause of acute febrile illness in U.S. travelers returning from the Caribbean, South America, and Asia (9).
Many of these travelers are still viremic upon return to the United States and potentially capable of introducing dengue virus into a community with competent mosquito vectors.
There are 4 different serotypes of the Dengue Fever virus, so a person can become infected several times over their lifetime. Usually, the first infection with a dengue virus results in the milder form of the illness, while more serious illness can occur with subsequent infections.
With no vaccine currently available, it makes sense to take reasonable precautions whenever you are around mosquitoes (and not just in Dengue endemic areas).
After all, you needn’t travel abroad to be exposed to, and possibly sickened by, a mosquito-borne illness. Last year, nearly 300 Americans died due to West Nile Virus (see DVBID: 2012 Record Number Of West Nile Fatalities).
Those who travel to, or live in areas where mosquitoes are present are reminded that to follow the `5 D’s’:
