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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.
Painful Infection
?If an international traveler returns to the U.S. with an infection and it?s the summer months when the mosquitoes are active, the infected person could meet a vector mosquito and the infection could spread to another person,? Knowlton said.
People can limit the spread of the disease by taking measures as simple as emptying standing water -- where mosquitoes lay their eggs -- out of tires, containers and birdbaths, she said. Doctors and patients need to be better aware of the symptoms of dengue fever, she said.
?It?s one of the most painful infections you can get,? Knowlton said. ?The classic symptoms are a fever, a terrific headache or a pain behind the eyes, terrible bone joint pains. Typically with bed rest and drinking fluids, it resolves.?
Dengue is unlikely to be able to spread to all U.S. states at present, and plans to reduce greenhouse gases can help contain the range of the mosquitoes by limiting temperature gains, Knowlton said.
?I hope we don?t have to talk about a situation where people in Montana have to worry about local transmission of dengue fever,? she said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: July 8, 2009 13:00 EDT
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.
Painful Infection
?If an international traveler returns to the U.S. with an infection and it?s the summer months when the mosquitoes are active, the infected person could meet a vector mosquito and the infection could spread to another person,? Knowlton said.
People can limit the spread of the disease by taking measures as simple as emptying standing water -- where mosquitoes lay their eggs -- out of tires, containers and birdbaths, she said. Doctors and patients need to be better aware of the symptoms of dengue fever, she said.
?It?s one of the most painful infections you can get,? Knowlton said. ?The classic symptoms are a fever, a terrific headache or a pain behind the eyes, terrible bone joint pains. Typically with bed rest and drinking fluids, it resolves.?
Dengue is unlikely to be able to spread to all U.S. states at present, and plans to reduce greenhouse gases can help contain the range of the mosquitoes by limiting temperature gains, Knowlton said.
?I hope we don?t have to talk about a situation where people in Montana have to worry about local transmission of dengue fever,? she said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: July 8, 2009 13:00 EDT