Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters
A registered nurse injects a dose of the dengue vaccine to Alberto Luis Nunez, 12, after a spike in dengue circumstances in San Juan, Puerto Rico, this month.
CNN
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Puerto Rico has declared a public well being emergency as a consequence of a surging variety of dengue circumstances.
Puerto Rico Secretary of Heath Carlos Mellado stated the well being division has registered 549 circumstances of dengue to date this 12 months, far exceeding historic numbers.
“Our groups have been engaged on an built-in plan for prevention and management in response to arboviruses and we’re going to broaden the response carried out,” Mellado stated in an announcement, noting that the declaration will permit further assets that may strengthen surveillance and case administration packages.
Dengue is the commonest mosquito-borne virus worldwide. Greater than 400 million persons are contaminated yearly. It spreads primarily through the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can also be recognized to hold a number of different viruses corresponding to yellow fever, chikungunya and Zika.
The virus is endemic in additional than 100 international locations in tropical and subtropical climates, largely in city and semi-urban areas, in line with the World Well being Group — and within the US territories of Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and American Samoa.
About 1 in 4 folks contaminated with dengue could have signs, together with fever, nausea, vomiting, rash and physique aches — usually muscle, joint or bone ache or behind the eyes.
Extreme dengue is much less widespread, however the signs can embody shock and inside bleeding. About 40,000 folks die from extreme dengue around the globe annually, in line with the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
Well being officers in Puerto Rico are urging folks to make use of insect repellent and remove potential mosquito breeding websites by stopping water from accumulating.
“It is usually important to put on clothes that covers uncovered pores and skin and think about putting in mosquito nets on beds and wire mesh on doorways and home windows,” Mellado stated.
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Within the US, there’s a dengue vaccine for youngsters ages 9 to 16 who’ve laboratory-confirmed proof of a earlier dengue an infection and who dwell in areas the place dengue is endemic, together with Puerto Rico. There isn’t a dengue vaccine out there for adults within the US.
Dengue outbreaks happen often within the continental United States; final 12 months, a number of circumstances had been reported in Florida. However most circumstances are reported in Puerto Rico, Dr. Gabriela Paz-Bailey, chief of the Dengue Department within the Division of Vector-Borne Illnesses on the DCC, informed CNN final 12 months.
“It has the right local weather for it. It’s a tropical island,” Paz-Bailey stated. “There are certainly efforts from the well being division and different organizations just like the Puerto Rico vector management unit to manage dengue within the space.”
Local weather change may also encourage the unfold of dengue around the globe, Paz-Bailey stated.
“Increased temperatures will in all probability broaden the vary of locations the place a mosquito can survive,” she stated. “After which it could actually additionally facilitate transmission via different methods, like sooner viral replication within the mosquito and elevated survival of mosquitoes.”
CNN’s Jamie Gumbrecht contributed to this report.