The CDC says that dengue fever cases have hit record highs in Latin America.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent a health alert on Tuesday that warned doctors to be on alert for dengue fever cases as the mosquito-borne disease continues to spread worldwide.
The virus has been on the rise worldwide and in the Americas in recent months, officials said. Some countries have broken calendar-year records for dengue cases, while the U.N. World Health Organization declared an emergency over dengue in December.
In its bulletin on Tuesday, the CDC told doctors to be aware of the symptoms of the viral infection and to ask patients questions about where they recently traveled. Doctors are also advised to order tests for dengue if need be.
Some 2,241 cases have been reported in 2024 across 50 states and another 1,498 cases in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. The territory declared an emergency for dengue in March amid a rise in cases.
There were 3,036 dengue cases reported in the United States, Puerto Rico, and other territories last year, according to the CDC. In Latin America, nearly 10 million cases of the virus have been reported, or about twice as many as all the cases reported in 2023, the CDC advisory said.
A separate CDC page shows that most South American and Central American countries, including Mexico and Brazil, have reported higher-than-normal numbers of dengue. It noted that the virus can be considered a year-round risk, and in some areas, there are outbreaks every two to five years.
There is no widely available medicine for treating dengue infections. Vaccines have been problematic because there are four types of dengue that can infect people.
U.S. officials in 2021 recommended one vaccine made by Sanofi Pasteur. The three-dose vaccine is built to protect against all four dengue types and is recommended only for children ages 9 to 16 who have laboratory evidence of earlier dengue infection and who live in an area where dengue is common, such as Puerto Rico.
