Dengue Fever Dengue (pronounced as DENGgey) is a virus whose name “is derived from the Swahili ki denga pepo, which means ‘seizure caused by an evil spirit,’” according to Lisa A. Beltz, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Kent State University and author of Emerging Infectious Diseases. It typically occurs in tropical and subtropical environments. The warm, moist air is ideal for the mosquitos that carry the virus. According to cdc.gov, a government website for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are four serotypes, or closely related viruses (dengue one, two, three, and four), which causes greater risks. It is possible that someone can get infected with all four serotypes. Because they are different, getting
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According to mayoclinic.org, a medical website published by the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, these symptoms include a sudden high fever, severe headaches, pain behind the eyes, severe joint and muscle pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, skin rash (which appears two to five days after fever), and mild bleeding (which can occur in the nose or gums). These symptoms can also take around four to ten days to appear after initial infection from a mosquito bite (mayoclinic.org). The virus starts out as dengue fever and can turn into the more deadly dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome. The risk of developing these diseases becomes greater as one person becomes infected with more than one serotype. As stated previously, people can recover. In the worst case scenario, symptoms can become worse, even life-threatening, and eventually can lead to …show more content…
Annually, there are up to 50 million infections that occur worldwide which has lead to upwards of 500,000 reported cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever with 22,000 cases leading to mostly premature deaths of children as well as some adults (who.int). As for the United States, with its climate and other factors, contact between Aedes and people is rare, unless acquired by someone coming to the U.S. as a traveller from a tropical vacation or immigrant from a too humid home, and still it is difficult to transmit once in the continental states. The largest dengue problem the U.S. faces is Puerto Rico, with the highest number of cases diagnosed in the U.S. (cdc.gov). The location has the perfect conditions for the Aedes
According to mayoclinic.org, a medical website published by the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, these symptoms include a sudden high fever, severe headaches, pain behind the eyes, severe joint and muscle pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, skin rash (which appears two to five days after fever), and mild bleeding (which can occur in the nose or gums). These symptoms can also take around four to ten days to appear after initial infection from a mosquito bite (mayoclinic.org). The virus starts out as dengue fever and can turn into the more deadly dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome. The risk of developing these diseases becomes greater as one person becomes infected with more than one serotype. As stated previously, people can recover. In the worst case scenario, symptoms can become worse, even life-threatening, and eventually can lead to …show more content…
Annually, there are up to 50 million infections that occur worldwide which has lead to upwards of 500,000 reported cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever with 22,000 cases leading to mostly premature deaths of children as well as some adults (who.int). As for the United States, with its climate and other factors, contact between Aedes and people is rare, unless acquired by someone coming to the U.S. as a traveller from a tropical vacation or immigrant from a too humid home, and still it is difficult to transmit once in the continental states. The largest dengue problem the U.S. faces is Puerto Rico, with the highest number of cases diagnosed in the U.S. (cdc.gov). The location has the perfect conditions for the Aedes