Dengue Fever on Our Doorstep: Climate Change Drives Disease Re-emergence in U.S.

OnEarth Magazine ^ | June 29, 2010 | Scott Dodd

[SwinneySwitch]

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms that for the first time in more than 65 years, dengue fever has returned the continental United States, The New York Times is reporting this week:

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.

In our Fall 2009 cover story, OnEarth looked at how climate change will force the U.S. to revamp its health-care defenses against diseases like dengue. Reporting from a Mexican town across the border from Brownsville, Texas, author Kim Larsen wrote:

Dengue is endemic in Matamoros; in 2004 a blood-sampling survey found dengue antibodies in 78 percent of the city's residents, which means all who tested positive had been infected with the virus at some point in their lives, though it may have gone undiagnosed. According to José Luís Robles López, the medical services coordinator for the city, dengue's grip has only tightened in the years since. It used to surge from August through October, in the wake of the summer rains, with cases leveling off throughout the rest of the year. But more and more, Robles López says, dengue is diagnosed steadily all year round.

[newnhdad]

Whooping cough in CA and now this in Texas. Yeah, it has nothing to do with the influx of millions of people that have no access to any medical professional.

Viva Obama...

[GOPJ]

3rd world immigration did that, not climate change...

You're right - too bad liberals hate facts that don't fit their narratives...

[mbynack]

I think a lot of the disease problems that we're experience are from illegal immigration and not a minor change in temperatures. The US is experiencing a resurgence of diseases like TB, leprosy, and Malaria that we thought were under control decades ago.

[syriacus]

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms that for the first time in more than 65 years, dengue fever has returned the continental United States,

I guess that means that the earth was too warm 65 years ago. How did we cool it back then?

[dalebert]

Its from illegals and has nothing to do with global warming.

[dalebert]

Its from illegals and has nothing to do with global warming.

[TexasFreeper2009]

great... more people will now die because of the banning of perfectly good pesticides.

[Sacajaweau]

There was a reason that people entering the USA were checked for diseases.

The Mexicans brought us H1N1....Thank you very much!!

[steelyourfaith]

Ever wonder why you never stop hearing about studies finding GW responsible for everything from kidney stones to cannibalism? Explains MIT's Richard Lindzen: "It's become standard that whatever you're studying, include global warming's effects in your proposal and you'll get your (government) funding."

 

Dr. John Brignell's WARMLIST
~A complete list of things caused by global warming.~

[JerseyHighlander]

Earlier this year I read on FR that Dengue is now endemic in the bays of the Key West, there were at least 5 confirmed and over a dozen suspected cases in the last year.

[SkipW]

I agree that the reference to climate change is B.S. The article had useful information and the reference to climate change seems weird.

The environmentalist woman who spearheaded the drive to prevent use of DDT in Africa can be considered to be a mass murderer, based on the results of what she did.

I wonder whether anyone ever asked her about that. Come to think of it, I am going to raise that question with some of the radical environmentalists where I live. I am sure that they will be upset with me for asking the question, and they will certainly not give serious consideration to it.

But it will be funny to see the level of outrage they will express. They will dislike me even more than they do now, if that is possible.

[SwinneySwitch]

Silent Spring author Rachel Carson helped get DDT banned here.

[Godwin1]

Climate change, my foot. A massive increase in immigration from the Third World has led to an increase in Dengue. Malaria is next.

[Scythian]

Climate change, my foot. A massive increase in immigration from the Third World has led to an increase in Dengue. Malaria is next.

Ding, Ding, Ding, we have a winner. Malaria is already in the US, or rather, it is still in the US, though it was nearly wiped out it is coming back. Also, Google Chagas Disease which is growing strong now in the US thanks to uncontrolled illegal immigration from Central America, the kissing bug in the US is now heavily infected, the main carrier.



Chagas disease is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, a parasite related to the African trypanosome that causes sleeping sickness. It is spread by reduvid bugs and is one of the major health problems in South America. Due to immigration, the disease also affects people in the United States.

[Finny]

I don’t like illegal immigration any more than you do, but dengue fever is NOT contagious. You don’t get it from other people; you get it from a mosquito bite.

[Finny]

Dengue fever is NOT contagious.

[Finny]

Whooping cough, or pertussis, is contagious and can be spread by illegal immigrants. I bet anything that's why it's making a comeback here.

Dengue fever is NOT contagious. It cannot be spread by illegal immigrants, unless one is referring to illegal immigrant mosquitos! ;^)

[Finny]

Its from illegals and has nothing to do with global warming. If you're referring to Dengue fever, your statement is WRONG.

Dengue fever is from mosquitos, and the thriving of mosquitos is from the outlawing of DDT. An illegal immigrant infected with Dengue fever cannot spread the disease because Dengue IS NOT CONTAGIOUS.

You could get rid of every illegal immigrant in the U.S. and there'd still be a Dengue epidemic if Dengue-carrying mosquitos are present. Dengue is spread by mosquitos, not illegal immigrants.

[combat_boots]

Tnx.

Just think of all the new and rare, tropical or Asian diseases, or ones thought gone from the US, that docs can now experience 1st hand in the US! Gee. Diphtheria? Polio? Smallpox? Scarlet Fever? Typhoid?

Wow. They’re not for missionaries and foreign service members anymore.....

/s

[Finny]

A massive increase in immigration from the Third World has led to an increase in Dengue.

Nope. Dengue fever is NOT contagious. Illegal third-world immmigration did not spread Dengue; lack of the use of mosquito-killing DDT has led to an increase in Dengue.

Whooping cough, yes, that would be increased by illegal third world immigration. Dengue, no, unless you're referring to a massive increase in immigration of third-world mosquitos!!!