Dengue fever cases in Hawaii spike
Cases of the mosquito-borne dengue fever disease continue to climb in the island state of Hawaii, whose health department reported 180 cases as of Christmas Eve.
That figure include 172 people who got dengue between September 11 and December 13 but are no longer infectious.
Another eight people got the disease since then and may be infectious, according to the Hawaii health department.
It all adds up to a big spike from the 23 cases reported early last month, and there’s little indication there won’t be more in the weeks to come.
“This is an issue that we have to take seriously, as seriously as we did the Ebola epidemic in West Africa last year,” Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN affiliate KHON.
So far, the dengue cluster has been centered on the Big Island, or Hawaii. That’s relatively good news for folks, who are staying on Oahu.
In fact, the state heath department says, “The Big Island and the rest of Hawaii remain safe destinations for visitors and residents.”
Still, it’s understandable people are apprehensive, given that it’s not exactly easy to dodge mosquitoes in tr
That’s why state and federal authorities are monitoring all of the state’s islands for possible infections and conducting “mosquito site assessments and abatement as needed.” There have been two confirmed cases, one on Hawaii and the other on Oahu, of dengue being imported to the state.
Dengue infections “have grown dramatically around the world in recent decades,” with one estimate suggesting 390 million infections a year, reports the World Health Organization. The agency adds that about 3.9 billion people in 128 countries are at risk.
The United States, though, isn’t considered a place where a person is in high danger of coming down with dengue.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly all cases in the 48 continental states came from travelers or immigrants. The last reported such outbreak occurred in 2005 in south Texas, near the Mexican border.
People of all ages — infants, children and adults — are susceptible to dengue fever, which causes a severe flu-like illness, but seldom leads to death. Those who get it often experience high fever and other symptoms like headache; eye, muscle or joint pains; nausea; swollen glands or rashes. Symptoms last about a week, according to the WHO.
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