U.S. Centers for Disease Control raise alert for threat of dengue after world cases skyrocket

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is alerting doctors and local health authorities, especially in the southern United States, about the threat of dengue in the country after the disease will skyrocket globally.

“Although there are currently no reports of an outbreak in the continental United States, cases around the world have increased at an alarming rate,” Gabriela Paz-Bailey, director of the CDC's Dengue Office, told EFE, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.

According to data from the agency, a total of 2,241 cases have been reported in the country so far this year, a considerable increase compared to 2023, taking into account that 3,036 were registered throughout the year.

Of the total cases so far in 2024, 1,498 were recorded in Puerto Rico, where local authorities declared a state of emergency in March after recording historic numbers of this disease transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, also a carrier of chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika.

“Increased travel during the summer to places where dengue is common can lead to greater local transmission in the United States, so it is important that health professionals test patients who have fever and have traveled to places where dengue is common. dengue is common,” Paz-Bailey said.

For this reason, the epidemiologist of Colombian origin urges those who travel to these countries to protect themselves with repellent, as they want to prevent them from returning with the virus and it from spreading in the United States, since the transmitting mosquito is present in several states of the United States. country, especially in the south.

“These imports of the virus due to dengue in travelers can result in local transmission, although they are generally short chains of transmission and controlled outbreaks, they are not the explosive outbreaks that we see in Puerto Rico,” Paz-Bailey stressed.

Historically, locally transmitted cases have been recorded in Hawaii, Florida and Texas, and have recently been reported in Arizona and California, according to the director of the Dengue Office.

“But where we expect there to be more possibilities of transmission is in the southern United States, where the Aedes aegypti mosquito exists, and Florida has been one of the states that has reported the most locally acquired cases,” said the expert, who assures that the heat It is a factor that is contributing to the increase in cases globally.

Paz-Bailey explains that the mosquito is now present in areas where it could not survive before because temperatures were lower. Likewise, hurricanes, floods and other “extreme phenomena” create favorable conditions to generate breeding sites for these insects and thus multiply.

According to the CDC, approximately one in four people infected with the dengue virus - for which there is no specific medication to treat - become ill, and of those, some suffer severe, life-threatening symptoms in a few. hours, for which hospitalization is required.

The most common symptom of this virus is fever, as well as nausea, vomiting, rash and pain in the eyes, muscles and joints. However, severe or hemorrhagic dengue, which is less common, can include shock and internal bleeding.

About 40,000 people die each year from severe dengue worldwide, according to the CDC.

In the United States, there is a dengue vaccine that the CDC recommends for use in children between 9 and 16 years old who have had a previous laboratory-confirmed infection and who live in areas where dengue is common.

In the Americas, 4.6 million cases were reported in 2023, while so far this year 9.6 million have already been recorded, according to agency data.