United States – US health officials on Tuesday warned physicians to watch out for dengue fever, as the disease is shattering records globally.
This virus is acquired through mosquitoes, and the strain has increased globally due to climate change. The Americas in particular began achieving calendar year records for dengue fever in less than half a year, as reported by HealthDay.
Global Surge Due to Climate Change
The World Health Organization did in December while the island of Puerto Rico also declared a public health emergency a month of March.
Dengue is still not prevalent in the continental area of the United States of America, but for the 50 states of the US this year, the rate of occurrence has tripled compared to last year. Many were diseases that people contracted in other countries, and authorities do not believe that there is an active outbreak in the present day. However, they also caution that local mosquitoes are a problem here.
In its health alert Tuesday this week, the CDC recommended that physicians be familiar with early symptoms, inquire about patients’ recent travel history, and, when necessary, order dengue tests.
Dengue fever is an illness brought on by a virus that is bitten by a type of seventy-degree Fahrenheit mosquito that experts say is entering new regions because of global climate change.
Symptoms and Severity
They do not manifest symptoms in many cases, but sometimes, headache, fever, and flu-like symptoms occur. In severe cases, it can result in serious bleeding, a state of shock, or death.
Both can be dangerous, but repeated infections can be particularly dangerous.
Den-G reports that there are four subtypes of the dengue virus: type 1, type 2, type 3, and type 4. Whenever a person is infected for the first time, his body creates neutralizing antibodies that work with that particular type forever. Upon a second attack, the antibodies produced from the first strain can hone in on the second type of dengue, enhance the virus’s entry into immune cells, and essentially breed.
That is a challenge that is present in Puerto Rico as it has been exposed to type 1 extensively for the last two decades. The island recorded its first dengue death this year last month, the report shows.
Current Situation in Puerto Rico
“We’re currently seeing increases in the cases due to dengue 2 and dengue 3, for which the population has very little immunity,” said Dr. Gabriela Paz-Bailey, the Puerto Rico-based chief of the CDC’s dengue branch.
Dengue fever has no standard medicine that can cure the infection and is thus referred to as a tropical fever.
Vaccines have been tricky. In 2021, US Sanofi Pasteur recommended a single vaccine. The three-dose vaccine is created to shield individuals against all four types of dengue and is only prescribed to children between 9 and 16 years old who have laboratory proof of prior dengue infection and reside in an area that is highly affected by the disease, like Puerto Rico.
Despite those restrictions and other challenges, it has not been widely utilized. Through to the end of the prior month, an estimated 140 children have received the vaccine in Puerto Rico, where shots have been administered starting 2022, and vaccine developer Sanofi Pasteur has informed the CDC of its intention to cease making the vaccine.
Another vaccine produced by Tokyo-based Takeda company is not licensed for use in the United Sates as of now while there are other vaccines under development.
Global Impact
Globally, over 6.6 million individuals are diagnosed annually with the ailment. It is estimated that about 80 countries were infected by this last year. For the initial four months of this year, seven. Currently, there have been 7.9 million cases and 4,000 deaths, as per the World Health Organization. This has been more especially so in the Americas region, such as in Brazil and Peru.
These have been much larger worldwide and in the United States as well—roughly 3,000 cases in the states and territories last year. But it was the worst in a decade and involved more infections from mosquitoes local to the region, or as we shall come to realize, native mosquitoes. Again, the majority were in Puerto Rico; however, about 180 were from three states, which included Florida,Texas, and California.
Through August this year there were close to 1,500 home grown U. S. cases, all but fifteen of them in Puerto Rico.
Traveler’s Nightmare
The majority of cases still reported in different parts of the continental United States involve individuals who contracted the virus while abroad, as reported by HealthDay.
It is described as a “traveler’s nightmare” and a rising concern in the global health map today according to Dr Lulu Bravo, a professor of pediatrics and an expert on pediatric tropical diseases of the University of the Philippines Manila, who is a scientific collaborator with Takeda on its vaccine.