United States: On Monday, officials of the Texas Department of State Health Services reported that the state has recorded its FIRST locally transmitted dengue virus this year in Cameron County.
Local officials reported in a press release that there had been 106 travel-associated dengue cases in Texas in 2024, and there was one death case in total, but one of these happened this year; experts said this is far from the highest number of cases recorded annually in Texas since 2002.
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“Locally acquired” means the people who have become infected with the virus have not visited an area of the world where dengue is transmitted usually.
Transmission of dengue is usually prevalent in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world, such as Florida and the US Caribbean territories, ABC News reported.
Dengue virus is transmitted through mosquitoes, and only 25 percent of its victims develop the symptoms of the disease.
The chief symptoms include fever with accompanying pains, nausea, vomiting, and rash, among others.
Symptoms take a maximum of two weeks from the time the person was bitten and are usually for two to seven days. The soreness and stiffness most commonly go away after a week.
The CDC also underlines that the only sure way to avoid the disease is to avoid being bitten by a mosquito.
Growing cases of Dengue
While Texas is reporting its first homegrown case of dengue this year, there have been 4,962 cases nationwide as of the CDC.
Last year, the state of Texas also had one locally acquired case. Most of the local cases in the nation are reportedly from Puerto Rico.
Fifteen have been reported in California, whereas 53 in Florida.
This year alone, up to the end of October, there are more than triple the number of Indigenous dengue cases nationally than what was seen throughout the whole of last year, ABC News reported.
In June, however, the CDC sent out a health alert notifying healthcare providers and travel clinics of the incidence of the dengue virus this year.
As in other parts of the world, the incidence of dengue has risen to its highest levels ever seen, flagged by the CDC.