Close-up of the yellow fever mosquito biting human skin, which is the colicidae vector for malaria, yellow fever, chikungunya, dengue and Zika virus in Brazil, and known locally as the dengue mosquito.
Joao Paolo Borini | moment | Getty Images
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health warning Tuesday to alert authorities, health care providers and the public of the increased risk of dengue fever in the United States.
The alert comes as an unexpectedly higher number of dengue cases have been reported across the country, according to the CDC.
A total of 2,241 cases have been reported so far this year in the United States, including 1,498 cases in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, where a public health emergency was declared in March after cases exceeded historic numbers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 3,036 cases of dengue last year in the United States and its territories.
This year, the global incidence of dengue fever was the highest it has ever been, especially in Latin American countries, where more than 9.7 million dengue cases were reported. That's double what it was in all of 2023 (4.6 million cases), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dengue infection rates have skyrocketed as many countries report increasingly high temperatures, creating ideal conditions for mosquitoes that spread dengue to hatch en masse and carry larger amounts of the virus.
The most common symptom among those infected with the mosquito-borne disease is fever. Other symptoms include severe headache, nausea, vomiting, rash, and body aches.
Symptoms can be mild or severe. Most dengue patients recover within a week, but in severe cases the disease can be life-threatening and require hospitalization because it can lead to shock, internal bleeding and even death.
Those who have had dengue fever in the past are more likely to develop severe symptoms. A person can get dengue fever up to four times in their lifetime — once for each type of virus that can cause the disease, according to the CDC.
The latest CDC alert advises health care providers to increase suspicion of dengue among people with fever, especially if they have recently visited areas where dengue occurs frequently. It is recommended to quickly report any dengue cases to public health authorities and strengthen mosquito bite prevention measures.
The CDC said it is also implementing other measures, such as improving and expanding laboratory testing to more effectively diagnose cases, as well as educating the public about the disease and how to prevent it.
Some helpful prevention methods include staying in air-conditioned spaces when possible, using insect repellent and wearing long sleeves and pants to avoid mosquito bites.
