Cases of Dengue fever are rising along the Texas-Mexico border with rates in the Lone Star State reaching levels not seen in more than two decades. In Mexico, hospitalizations and deaths from complications of the virus are also on the rise.
Dengue fever cases have topped 5.2 million in the Americas, and a United Nations health agency is calling it an “emergency situation.”
Texas public health officials issued an alert to doctors, urging more Zika testing along the Texas-Mexico border, considered a high-risk area for the virus to spread in the event of local transmission.
With the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issuing their first warning for Americans to avoid travel to an American neighborhood, the U.S. is on the verge of a Zika pandemic that may soon require extreme measures, including aerial pesticide spraying.
Hawaii’s governor David Ige declared a state of emergency for mosquito-borne illnesses on Sunday, including Zika and dengue fever. The latter has been an especially urgent concern, with over 250 confirmed cases of dengue reported during the current outbreak.
The responsibility for protecting our communities in Texas from the Zika virus is local and municipal, say mosquito experts. The problem is that poorer areas do not have the expertise or the manpower because of their low tax base. Texas counties without formal mosquito districts or like services are ill-equipped to address Zika virus concerns.
Aggressive tropical mosquitos–a breed that can carry the Zika virus–have been found in Orange County, California. The invasive species–which can also carry yellow fever, dengue fever and chinungunya–could pose a risk to the public.
African disease control experts have offered to help Latin America combat the increasingly rapid spread of Zika virus across the Western Hemisphere. While Zika is not a threat in Africa, scientists working to combat Ebola there in the past two years hope to use methods successful against Ebola to prevent similar devastation in South America.
Meet the Aedes aegypti, a tiny blood-sucking mosquito that is causing panic worldwide for its ability to transmit the Zika virus and a host of other diseases that have recently surfaced in the U.S.
The first case of Zika virus was confirmed in Los Angles County on Tuesday within days of a warning from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) that predicted the spread of the virus throughout the Americas.
California health officials are concerned over the arrival of nonnative mosquitos that are known to carry deadly diseases and that are quickly spreading across the southern part of the Golden State.
Contents: Thousands of cars in China stuck in week-long traffic jam; Fears in Israel grow of ‘third intifada’ as West Bank violence spreads; Anger and frustration grow among West Bank Palestinians; Four Russian cruise missiles fall in Iran; Severe epidemic of dengue fever strikes Vietnam
The first human case of Chikungunya (pronounced chik-un-gun-ya) has been confirmed in Collin County, Texas, located just northeast of Dallas. The infected individual recently traveled to another country and returned to the states with the virus. The risk of spread to Americans is from the virus being imported by travelers. Collin County is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas, statistical area.
Nearly 80% of Yemen’s civilian population is dependent on humanitarian aid for food and water, while six million are believed to be suffering “severe” hunger, and up to 8,000 people may have contracted Dengue fever. This is the dire portrait of a war-torn nation the United Nations presented this week, as fighting between Shiite Houthi rebels and supporters of Sunni President Hadi and Saudi Arabia continue to struggle for power.
