Texas recorded its first regionally acquired case of dengue fever this 12 months, state public-health officers mentioned this week.
The case was reported in Cameron County, which sits on the Texas-Mexico border with a inhabitants of round 425,000 and contains town of Brownsville.
Final 12 months, the state reported one regionally acquired case out of its complete 79 instances.
This 12 months, the Lone Star state has seen 106 travel-associated instances of dengue fever — the best annual depend in Texas since 2002, based on a press launch. One case has been deadly to this point.
Now the primary regionally acquired case has cropped up, which means that the particular person contaminated had no historical past of touring to a rustic the place dengue is usually discovered.
The dengue virus is transmitted by mosquito bites and is extra generally recorded in tropical or subtropical environments the place mosquitoes thrive.
It isn’t handed human to human.
Solely about 25% of these contaminated ever present signs, which may embody the eponymous fever, aches, nausea, vomiting and rashes. It often takes two weeks for the contaminated particular person to indicate any signs, which may final anyplace from two to seven days.
Instances began to pop up in Florida after Hurricane Milton. Dengue outbreaks have been declared in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands as properly.
Greater than 50 regionally acquired instances have been reported in Florida and 15 in California to this point this 12 months, based on the Heart for Illness Management and Prevention.
There have at present been at the very least 4,962 instances nationally, with the majority being reported in Puerto Rico, based on the CDC.
Instances of dengue fever are at an all-time excessive globally this 12 months, seemingly on account of rising world temperatures, based on the CDC. The company initially issued a well being alert in June warning of an elevated danger of an infection within the coming months.
In the meantime, regionally acquired instances within the US proper now are almost triple what had been recorded by this time final 12 months.
Mosquito season in Texas is predicted to final by November and December, based on Lone Star State well being officers. The CDC advises utilizing insect repellant and carrying clothes that covers as a lot pores and skin as doable to stop mosquito bites.
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