Dengue-Carrying Bugs Spread to 28 U.S. States as Climate Warms, Group Says

Dengue-Carrying Mosquitoes Spread to 28 U.S. States, Group Says
By Alex Morales


July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Mosquitoes that can transmit dengue fever, a disease that’s sometimes fatal and is more common in the tropics, are now found in 28 U.S. states and may extend their reach further as temperatures warm, a study said.

Mosquitoes that spread dengue occur in the District of Columbia and as far north as Vermont and Minnesota, the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit environmental group, said today in a study. Historically, insects that carry the dengue virus were restricted to a southern strip from Texas to Florida.

Dengue infections have multiplied by thirty in the last 50 years, with as many as 100 million annual cases and 22,000 deaths worldwide, according to the study. The mosquitoes can more easily survive and spread when winters are milder, so global warming may increase transmission, said Kim Knowlton, senior scientist with the NRDC’s health and environment program.

“In the U.S., there’s been a tremendous increase in dengue fever over the last decade and these mosquitoes have been moving northward,” Knowlton said today in a phone interview from New York. “With rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, there’s a concern the range of the mosquitoes will expand.”

About 4,000 imported and locally transmitted cases of dengue fever were reported in U.S. from 1995 to 2005, according to the study. Another 6,000 occurred in the area of Texas that borders Mexico, the researchers said.

One of the two mosquito species that spread dengue was restricted to a southern strip of the U.S. as recently as 1970, according to the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The other has only been found in the U.S. since the mid-1980s, Knowlton said. Their spread increases the risk of the virus being transmitted from one person to another via the mosquitoes, she said. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aMWhjhcy2tB0

From the CDC's page on dengue:

Q. What are the symptoms of the disease?
A. The principal symptoms of dengue are high fever, severe headache, backache, joint pains, nausea and vomiting, eye pain, and rash. Generally, younger children have a milder illness than older children and adults.

Dengue hemorrhagic fever is characterized by a fever that lasts from 2 to 7 days, with general signs and symptoms that could occur with many other illnesses (e.g., nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and headache). This stage is followed by hemorrhagic manifestations, tendency to bruise easily or other types of skin hemorrhages, bleeding nose or gums, and possibly internal bleeding. The smallest blood vessels (capillaries) become excessively permeable (“leaky”), allowing the fluid component to escape from the blood vessels. This may lead to failure of the circulatory system and shock, followed by death, if circulatory failure is not corrected.

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It's known also as BREAKBONE fever because of how it makes you feel like a mass of broken bones. It's a terrible disease. IIRC actress Jane Seymour caught it on location years ago and wished she were dead while suffering with it.

:puke: