Incurable, mosquito-borne dengue disease could spread from subtropical areas
into the United States through global warming, requiring greater efforts to
combat it, health authorities said in commentary out Tuesday.
"Widespread appearance of dengue in the continental United States is a real
possibility," said National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
director Anthony Fauci, in commentary published in Journal of the American
Medical Association.
Dengue fever, a flu-like illness especially dangerous in children and the
elderly, "is becoming a much more serious problem along the US-Mexico border and
in ... Puerto Rico," said the text co-authored by Fauci's senior scientific
advisor David Morens.
While dengue-related illness in the United States "is presently minimal," global
warming and poor efforts to control mosquito populations responsible for its
spread could accelerate the ...