It’s already a record-breaking year for dengue infections in Central and South America, with almost 10 million cases diagnosed so far.
in the summer months, we are expecting people to travel more to areas where dengue is common, and this could lead to more local transmission in the United States.”so far this year. And about 1,500 of those cases have been locally acquired, mostly in Puerto Rico, where dengue virus is considered endemic – that is, in constant, continuous circulation.over dengue in March, after cases rose quickly at an unseasonably early time. Locally acquired cases have also been reported in the U.S.
And third, the dengue virus is hitching a ride on human travelers, who are going to see family, friends and places they missed out on when travel shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic., an environmental scientist and global health researcher at Emory University, “Humans are the vector, the ones that are moving the virus even a longer distance than mosquitoes.” They’re getting bitten by mosquitoes with dengue and bringing it, often inadvertently, to wherever they’re going next.
Dengue can be severe and fatal whether a person gets it for the first, second, third or fourth time. But there’s a particularly pronounced risk of serious illness the second time around, says Paz-Bailey with CDC. That’s because of a phenomena associated with dengue known as, where a first infection with dengue can prime a person’s immune system to help the virus infect cells more easily on a second infection.