(July 24) -- Once almost wiped out by a pesticide no longer in use, dengue fever is rearing its ugly head again in areas of Florida.

The disease, which is sometimes called "break-bone fever" for the crushing pain it inflicts, has shown up in some parts of the state, including tourist playground Key West. There also have been a handful of confirmed cases in Central Florida, Orlando NBC affiliate WESH reported this week. That's enough to get health officials worried.

Cases of dengue fever have been found in Key West and other parts of the state.
The disease is spread by mosquitoes, and is widespread in some parts of the Caribbean and Central America.

Health officials say there were 27 cases in Key West last year and 18 so far this year. Unnervingly, none of those victims had recently traveled abroad, meaning they picked up the disease locally, The New York Times reported.

The sun-drenched beaches of Key West have been a battleground over how to respond to the dengue fever scare.

On July 13, the federal Centers for Disease Control issued a report saying that about 5 percent of people in Key West showed some sign of recent exposure to the virus.

The report made this estimation based on a sampling of 240 residents, according to The New York Times.

Some people in Key West were less than pleased that the CDC had used such a small sampling of people to estimate the percentage of residents likely exposed.

"I don't know if the CDC understands what it potentially has done here," Andy Newman, the director of media relations for the Florida Keys and the Key West tourism council told The New York Times.

Still, Key West is working to contain the disease, including launching Mosquito TV and leaving out black cups filled with poison to capture and kill mosquito larvae.

Dengue fever was once widespread throughout the Americas. The disease was almost wiped out in the 1960s, thanks to the use of the pesticide DDT against carrier mosquitoes, Health.com reported.

Now that DDT is no longer used, the disease may be making a comeback. It is more often found in the tropics, but there have been outbreaks along the U.S. border with Mexico in the last 30 years.

"I can't even articulate the crazy pain that you're in," Jeanette Potter, who contracted the disease while vacationing in the Sunshine State last year, told Health.com. "My head hurt so bad that I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."
Filed under: Nation, Money, Weird News, Science, Health, Health Care

David:

Dengue ("break bone" fever)never was really wiped out -just as malaria was never wiped out in Central America (but we were within two mosquito breeding cycles of doing so) -and for the same reason. Rachel Carson's book successfully stopped the use of DDT -and resulted in the deaths of countless millions after the UN adopted her ideas -this from a totally unqualified woman with no science degrees and no experience in the tropics whatever. I saw dengue fever patients in Panama many years ago. I was told that people often wanted to kill themselves because of the pain. (It rarely killed even then over 50 years ago but the evident agony was very moving to anyone who saw it) One more to chalk up against Rachel Carson in my opinion. (Yes,I realize that a Southern gentleman always shelters a woman. Us damyankees are different)

This is very disturbing to me. I contracted dengue in 1982 while working in a refugee camp in Thailand. It is truly awful! I was only bed-ridden for a week. I knew other ex-pats working in the camp who were down for a month. And it was far worse for the folks living in the camp who got sick. Very high persistent fever, chills, awful joint pain. My head felt like I had a half-dozen 16d nails driven into it. The worst part is that there is nothing you can do to treat it: just analgesics for the pain and fever. Oh, yeah; a lot of your hair falls out too.
There is no prophylaxis either. And it is not good to get sick with it again. There are apparently four strains of the dengue virus and if someone like me contracts another strain from the one that infected me, a much more severe variety of the disease can set in, dengue hemmorageic fever, which requires hospitalization and blood transfusions to avoid death. I don't like the thought of this disease cropping up here in the US where none of our doctors can recognize what they have on their hands. (When I got sick all the gringo docs said it was not dengue, but something else; the Indian and Phillipino docs knew right away what was going on.)

I will vouch for the pain. I contracted Dengue in 1989 after Hurricane Hugo when I was living on St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. I was "lucky" that I was only down for 10 days. Words can't adequately describe it......

I get PO'd every time the banning of DDT comes up!

Bob

sdirks

Until I read your post I had no idea that dengue existed in Asia. Your very descriptive post confirmed what I had seen in Panama. I trust you are well recovered today. My father contracted malaria in Panama and for nearly 35 years afterwards -got attacks every Spring - I never heard anything about whether dengue comes back. I certainly hope not - I wouldn't wish such pain on my worst enemy)

Gerry,

No, I am fully recovered, thanks, and was within a few weeks of getting sick. (One of the benefits of getting something like that when you are a well-nourished 22-year-old!) Malaria, as you probably know, is a parasite, whereas dengue is a virus-- like the flu. The symptoms, at least initially, are very similar. When I got sick I was sharing a house with four other people who worked in the camp, three of them Phillipinas. One of them was the first in our house to get sick and she thought it was a recurrence of the malaria with which she'd been living for years. When it didn't go away after a few days, and lots of other folks started getting the same thing, we realized this was dengue.
I'm not sure just how common it is in Asia, but I know my uncle had it-- along with a bunch of other guys in his unit-- when he was in Vietnam in 1970. I don't remember hearing that any of the refugees actually died of the outbreak we had, but I wouldn't be surprised if that were so. There were quite a number of very young and very old people, and anyone over the age of ten had lived through the Pol Pot regime, so they had not been well-fed in nearly ten years.
I remember the whole epidemic lasting a couple months before it started to go away.

Scott

Between this, fire ants, collared doves, boa constrictors etc., illegal alien has a whole new meaning. And yes Gerry, I may be Southern and respect women, but I have no problem with your assessment of this person. Just like Wolves in the west: someone didn't quite think this through.
Regards,
David

David:

Still the Southern gentleman always and still you won't mention her name! We are not in a barroom and you really could say the name. You Rebs are impossible in your gallantry -but I admire you anyway!

I laugh my back side off every time I see a commercial about how Malaria kills people and you can help by sending us 10 bucks for a net. Gee you banned DDT and your fix is a net.

Some insight from someone in the pest control industry....

The problem wasn't DDT, it was the way it was used incorrectly by so many. Silent Spring damned millions to death, but so did such a history of wanton insecticide use. Over application and careless application is what led to problems that were capitalized by idiots who had agendas. Its STILL going on today. Pyrethroids were created when it was seen that the products of the day were on their way out. They were safer *epa would have my ass if they heard me say the word safe lol* more effective, less damaging and cheaper. Now, CA has banned the pyrethroids and it won't be long until we see it nation wide. We actually have MANY great products available that will do the job better then DDT ever did....the problem is the restrictions on using them and public outcry to stop "spraying chemicals". On the whole, the general public are easily led moronic sheeple and believe whatever they hear on TV. The vast majority of insecticides today are designed to specifically work on proteins and receptors that are only found in arthropods....but the stigma brought upon us by Silent Spring, this sort of dilema of deadly diseases are here to stay unfortunately, as well as nuisance exotic invaders. Not only damage to human health, but our agriculture and eco systems, as well as the homes we live in are all at risk. And every year....there is something new. Besides Red Imported Fire Ants, the south is now also dealing with Carribean Crazy Ants and Raspberry Crazy Ants. The RCA's are now causing damage all over Texas, they love to nest in electrical boxes, causing shorts and fires. For those in the Gulf Coast, formosan termites can actually make your house crumble.

Its a crazy world in the pest industry, and we bang our heads against the wall because we get our hands tied by liberal hippy leftists who poison (pardon the pun) of our society with self serving lies, manufactured data and misleading reports.

Off my soap box now

Malaria is carried by a particular mosquito. (Anopheles) Wiping out mosquito breeding grounds (any pool of calm water, no matter how small -like an empty can)goes a long ways to keeping down the population. George Semel is absolutely correct -that "mosquito nets" are nonsense in malaria country. There is no vaccine for malaria - but a copious use of kerosene and ordinary oil can go a long ways towards wiping out mosquitoes. DDT was just that close to wiping out malaria in Central America (two mosquito breeding cycles) The so called "environmentalists" hellbent on what they claimed was protection of birds ended its use -and this with no scientific studies whatever -except that they claimed eagle eggs were unnaturally thin because of DDT - but eagles ate a wide variety of prey -and the statistical data pointing to DDT was pure "junk science". Today, Rachel Carson is in her grave many years -so are many innocent children and adults around the globe because of what she wrote. In the ancient Celtic curse - I spit on her grave.