United States: The health care providers in the US are being warned by US health officials about the rise in cases of Dengue when the tropical disease has been breaking international records.
More about the news
Owing to the climate change, the virus which is spread via mosquito has been on rise globally. The countries in the Americas have already broke the previous year’s record, with just six months of the total Dengue reported infection cases.
As per the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost 197 cases have been noted by health officials within the state of Florida, as wpbf.com reported.
According to the CDC, thirteen of those cases were detected in Palm Beach County. In December last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a state of emergency; however, Puerto Rico declared it in March.
Dengue in the US
Dengue is relatively less common in the US part of the continent; however, in all of the 50 states, almost thrice the cases are reported this year than reported at the same time the previous year.
In most of the infection cases, infected person has travelled abroad, and the officials also point out that there is no current evidence of an outbreak. However, the officials have sent warnings that local mosquitos, too, are liable to pose a threat.
Therefore, in its health advisory, the CDC has been advising doctors to look for the symptoms, ask questions about patients’ travel history, and also ask for dengue tests when required.
Know more about Dengue
Dengue (which is pronounced as DEHN’-gay) is an infectious disease caused by a virus carried by a mosquito, which breeds in warm weather conditions. According to experts, climate change is going on, leading to a larger geographical area of the earth being under a warmer climate zone, as wpbf.com reported.
Usually, most of the infected do not fall sick; however, few of them experience headaches, fever, and flu-like symptoms. Moreover, in severe cases, patients can also experience serious bleeding, shock, and death.
It is also said that repeated infections especially lead to dangerous outcomes.
Dengue viruses are generally classified into four types- 1, 2, 3, and 4. When a person gets infected by a certain type of dengue virus, his/her body produces antibodies, which might fail to cancer out of the second type. This might actually help the virus to enther the immunitycells and duplicate.
What more are the experts stating?
According to Dr. Gabriela Paz-Bailey, the Puerto Rico-based chief of the CDC’s dengue branch, “We’re currently seeing increases in the cases due to dengue two and dengue 3, for which the population has very little immunity,” as wpbf.com reported.
To cure the infections there are no widely available drugs to treat Dengue. In 2021, as the officials call the vaccines to be tricky for the disease, the US officials did recommend one vaccine, which was made by Sanofi Pasteur.
The vaccine is a three-dose system, built to protect against all four drug types, recommended for only children of age from 9 to 16.
The number of cases in the US has been far too modest – around 3000 cases per year in the US states and territories. However, this stat is so far the worst in a decade, which comprised far more infections that occurred locally due to native mosquitoes.
A maximum of those were reported in Puerto Rico, but about 180 were in three US states- Florida, Texas, and California.