Dengue strikes United States.Texas has been hit with the first-ever outbreak of dengue dengue /den·gue/ (den´ge) an infectious, eruptive, febrile, viral disease of tropical areas, transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, and marked by severe pains in the head, eyes, muscles, and joints, sore throat, catarrhal symptoms, and sometimes a skin eruption and painful swellings of parts. hemorrhagic fever hemorrhagic fever n. in the continental United States. Sixteen people in Brownsville Brownsville, city (1990 pop. 98,962), seat of Cameron co., extreme S Tex., on the Rio Grande c.17 mi (30 km) from its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico; inc. 1850. It is an important port of entry across the river from Matamoros, Mexico. A deepwater channel was dredged (1936) to accommodate ocean vessels; a land cut NE to the Brazos Santiago Pass, which bypasses the Rio Grande channel, is the southern terminus of the Intracoastal Waterway. contracted this severe form of dengue fever Dengue hemorrhagic fever, a severe form of the disease, can cause hemorrhage, shock, and encephalitis. It occurs when a person who has acquired immunity to one of the viruses that cause dengue fever is infected by a different dengue virus. It is a leading cause of death among children in Southeast Asia and in recent years has become increasingly prevalent in tropical America. There is no specific treatment for dengue fever except good nursing care. late in 2005, and another nine people had a less severe form of dengue infection at that time, says physician Bryan K. Kapella of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, who presented these findings A syndrome that occurs in perhaps 20 percent to 40 percent of infections by certain arboviruses and is marked by high fever, scattered petechiae, bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract and other organs, hypotension, and shock. Dengue is a viral disease, carried by mosquitoes, that causes a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint aches, and rashes. Dengue hemorrhagic fever includes those symptoms plus small-blood vessel leakage, which can lead to shock, internal bleeding, circulatory failure, and death. There is no vaccine for dengue and no direct treatment. In the U.S. outbreak, none of the patients died. Dengue is most common in tropical regions. It's caused by four distinct--but related--viruses. A person can't be reinfected with the same type of dengue. However, dengue hemorrhagic fever seems to strike people who have been infected with one virus type and then later become infected with another. Therefore, some Brownsville patients may have been previously exposed to a dengue virus. Indeed, authorities had recorded five earlier instances in which verifiable dengue fever had crossed from Mexico, but none had caused hemorrhagic illness. The dengue virus is carried by Aedes Aedes /Ae·des/ (a-e´dez) a genus of mosquitoes, including approximately 600 species; some are vectors of disease, others are pests. It includes A. aegyp´ti, a vector of yellow fever and dengue. A·e·des ( aegypti, a day-biting mosquito that is partial to humans. The mosquitoes breed in open water containers and pools, Kapella says. He recommends stepped-up dengue surveillance along the border. --N.S. |
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