The Dengue Virus Has Been Found in Arizona

A harmful viral illness transmitted by mosquitoes has seemingly landed in Arizona. Earlier this week, well being officers reported {that a} Maricopa County resident just lately contracted dengue, whereas routine surveillance has discovered traces of the dengue virus in at the least one close by mosquito inhabitants. These discoveries counsel that the an infection might be spreading regionally within the state for the primary time, although the investigation remains to be ongoing.

Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) officers introduced the human case of dengue on Monday, although no different particulars concerning the affected person had been offered. They additionally reported that the Maricopa County Environmental Services Department had detected the virus final month in samples taken from a mosquito entice in a neighborhood of the county. Though there have been instances of dengue reported in Arizona earlier than, they’ve been present in individuals who doubtless caught it whereas just lately touring to international locations the place the illness is endemic. But given the surveillance information, officers say, it’s doable that that is the primary regionally transmitted case of dengue to be reported within the county and the state as an entire.

“While previous dengue cases in Maricopa County have been related to travel to countries where dengue commonly occurs, it is important to understand if others could have been exposed or if this is an isolated incident,” stated Nick Staab, medical epidemiologist, in a statement launched by the MCDPH. “This is in addition to our routine investigations of anyone suspected to have dengue or other mosquito-borne diseases.”

Dengue is unfold by bites from contaminated mosquitoes. Most contaminated folks will expertise no sickness, however about one in each 4 will develop flu-like signs, in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About one in each 20 folks will develop extreme dengue, which might result in life-threatening issues like inside bleeding and shock. There are 4 main serotypes of the virus, and surviving an infection from one kind doesn’t present immunity to the others. In truth, it truly raises the chance of extreme dengue must you ever catch one other kind of the virus.

Though dengue is commonest within the hottest and most humid areas of the world, it’s turn into remarkably widespread in latest many years, with the virus now believed to be endemic in over 100 international locations, in response to the World Health Organization. Many consultants worry that local weather change will permit dengue and related viruses to turn into a neighborhood downside in beforehand unaffected components of the world, like a lot of Europe and the United States. Notably, two of the most effective recognized vectors of dengue, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, can now be found throughout a lot of the Southern and Eastern U.S. throughout their peak seasons, although it’s nonetheless not clear whether or not these populations might maintain the widespread native transmission of dengue and different viruses but.

For the time being, Maricopa officers are planning to go door to door within the space, armed with mosquito prevention kits and assessments that ought to have the ability to detect whether or not any residents have been contaminated with dengue up to now a number of months.