Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
More dengue fever cases reported in South Florida
South Florida is under a mosquito-borne illness alert with new local cases of dengue fever reported in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Broward County reported its first case this year of locally transmitted dengue fever on Friday, and Miami-Dade reported its fourth. Mosquito control officials believe the cases transmitted locally come from South Florida mosquitoes that likely have bitten people with dengue brought back from South and Central America and the Caribbean.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 2 million individuals in the tropical region have contracted the mosquito-borne disease, and 723 have already died from it, according to
the Pan American Health Organization. Children have been most susceptible.
Dengue is transmitted by the bites of infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes — the same type that spreads Zika virus, which swept across Miami-Dade County only two years ago. Unlike Zika though, dengue can be fatal.
The most common dengue symptoms are high fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyeballs, and joint and muscle aches; however, severe cases can results in shock, internal bleeding and death. It is unclear whether anyone local has been hospitalized from dengue.
“There is no cure for dengue and no antiviral agent we can give to shorten duration of illness,” said Bindu Mayi, professor of microbiology for the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Nova Southeastern University. “About one in 20 people will get a severe case, and it has to be addressed. The best thing is prevention.”
The most effective way to combat dengue it is to eliminate breeding sites. Mosquito control in Broward and Miami-Dade said they are doing additional truck spraying as well as houseto-house spraying to prevent the spread. Broward Mosquito Control said it already has been treating the county aggressively for mosquitoes and because of wind conditions will go door to door with backpacks instead of spraying from trucks or planes this weekend, concentrating in the south portions of the county.
“We know where the areas are with the types of mosquitoes that carry dengue, and we will treat those more aggressively,” said Ahn Ton, Broward County’s director of mosquito control. Ton said because the mosquitoes are the type found in neighborhoods as opposed to wooded areas, he encourages Broward residents to be diligent about draining any standing water near their houses. Broward Mosquito Control has been working six days a week to control the population, Ton said.
In Miami-Dade the four local cases of dengue this year have not been clustered in time or geography and do not appear related, health officials said. MiamiDade Mosquito Control Division Director William Petrie said his division already treated the neighborhood where the newest local case was reported and will retreat it now that dengue has been confirmed.
“We will treat the area more intensively and target a wider area. We also will trap mosquitoes and send them off for testing,” he said.
Petrie said that, when looking at huge spike in dengue cases in Central and South America and the travel between South Florida and the region, it is surprising that Miami-Dade has only four local cases this year. “The number of cases in other places is staggering,” he said.
Anyone who wishes to request a mosquito inspection or report a breeding ground in Miami-Dade can call 3-1-1. Broward County residents can request mosquito spraying in their neighborhoods by completing the Mosquito Spray Request Form at Broward.org or by calling 954-765-4062.