WEDNESDAY, June 26, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- A federal health advisory warning of a heightened risk of dengue fever infections in the United States was issued on Tuesday. The alert was prompted by an unexpectedly high number of dengue fever cases reported across the country this year, the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said, and climate change is only upping the risk of future spread. "Dengue transmission peaks during the warmer and wetter months in many tropical and subtropical regions," the agency noted in its advisory. "Dengue cases are likely to increase as global temperatures increase.
" In the United States, Puerto Rico has been hardest hit: Of 2,241 U.S. dengue cases reported this year, 1,498 occurred in that U.
S. territory in the Caribbean. In March, a public health emergency was declared there after cases of the mosquito-born illness broke historical records.
For comparison, 3,036 dengue cases were reported in all of 2023 in the U.S. and its territories.
Still, America isn't the only country grappling with the troubling spread of dengue fever. This year, the global incidence of dengue fever has been the highest on record, especially in Latin American countries , where nearly 9.4 million dengue cases have been reported.
That's twice as many as in all of 2023. In recent years, dengue fever infections have skyrocketed amid increasingly hot temperatures around the globe, which create ideal conditions for the mosquitoes that spread the disease, NBC N.
