Dengue fever: A growing concern in the United States

State health officials have confirmed a case of dengue fever in Miami-Dade County.

Health officials said the Miami patient had “fully recovered from this illness”. The fact the man contracted dengue from a person who had not traveled recently means it was contracted from a local sources who has not yet been identified. All other cases have been carried into the country from foreign countries after travelers and immigrants contracted the disease outside of the United States. There have been about 50 such cases in Florida in the past decades.

“This is a big deal,” said Lillian Rivera, administrator of the Miami-Dade Health Department.

“We have not had a locally acquired case of dengue fever since the 1950s,” said Dr. Fermin Leguen, the department’s chief epidemiologist.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 28 reported cases of dengue fever this year in Key West – a first outside the US-Mexican border since 1945.

Dengue fever is a viral disease that is transmitted by a mosquito common to the southeastern United States and the tropics. The virus can cause flu-like symptoms such as fever, headaches and muscle and joint pains. It can also take on a hemorrhagic form, causing sudden death through internal bleeding and bleeding from body orifices.

Global incidence of dengue has grown dramatically in recent decades. About two fifths of the world’s population are now at risk.

Mild dengue fever causes high fever, rash, and muscle and joint pain. More-severe forms of the disease — dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome — can additionally cause severe bleeding, a sudden drop in blood pressure (shock) and death.