CDC Advisory - As Of Late May, Dengue Once Again Endemic In Continental United States

[hatrack]

For the first time in more than 65 years, dengue has returned the continental United States, according to an advisory the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued in late May. While a few cases were reported earlier, they were primarily in Americans who had caught the virus abroad or at the Texas-Mexico border.

The upsurge is not unexpected. Experts say more than half the world's population will be at risk by 2085 because of greater urbanization, global travel and climate change. Over the past 30 years, a global outcry against using the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT, has led to the resurgence of the mosquito, a voracious consumer of human blood and carrier of infectious disease.

Epidemics have become routine in Latin America, a continent on the verge of becoming highly endemic. Outbreaks are today raging in Brazil, Guatemala and other nations. Thailand, within a week of its annual dengue season this year, has already reported 18,000 cases and 20 deaths, according to the Ministry of Public Health. As the virus spreads in the tropics, experts are continuing to push toward an ultimate solution for the mosquito-borne illnesses: an effective and affordable vaccine. There are no drugs for the disease.

Jean Lang, a doctor who heads the vaccine division of the deep-pocketed pharmaceuticals company Sanofi Pasteur Inc., last month presented the world's most advanced effort to vaccinate against dengue to a room full of industry insiders in Chicago. The market for a vaccine is huge, with experts pegging sales at between $700 million and $1 billion per year.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/06/28/28greenwire-dengue-re-emerges-in-us-spurring-race-for-vacc-14067.html

[phantom power]

1. I recall some experiments with targeted application of DDT on residence walls.

Minimized environmental exposure, but killed mosquitos around where humans lived. Supposedly it worked pretty well, but I don't know if it ever got any traction.

[pscot]

2. See, this where the Gulf oil spill is a good thing.

Oil kills mosquitos, right? So really this oil spill is gonna save our ass.