All Posts Tagged With: "dengue"

Linda’s comments:  When will they learn.  I remember when they infected hundreds of thousands with Hepatits C and Hepatitis B….The Canadians sued and WON, but nothing happened in the states except that they now test blood for Hepatitis….This makes you wonder how many thousands have been infected with Lyme disease and its co-infections???  We know that transplant organs are infected with Lyme, why not our blood supply???  Is it because the US will have to admit that they are giving a death threat to all those who need blood??  DISGUSTING to say the least…

Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21414828

Excerpt:

During the last 20 years, the safety of blood products increased dramatically with regard to the infectious risk and notably to that represented by retroviruses (HIV and HTLV) and hepatitis B and C viruses. The aim of this review is to identify the residual and emergent viral threats that could be responsible for the occurring of new contaminations in the receivers of blood products. Beside many other viruses (HHV-8, erythrovirus B19, hepatitis A and E viruses…), a special attention has been paid to emerging arbovirus diseases (West Nile virus infection, dengue, chikungunya) that threaten to occur in the French metropolitan area following the implantation in Europe of the mosquito Aedes albopictus, the main vector of dengue and chikungunya in temperate regions. Another blood-linked risk, notably in United Kingdom and France, is the prion agent responsible for the variant form of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Full article:  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66C65X20100713Excerpt:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Five percent of the population of Key West, Florida — more than 1,000 people — have been infected at some point with the dengue virus, government researchers reported on Tuesday.

Most probably did not even know it, but the findings show the sometimes deadly infection is making its way north into the United States, the researchers said.

“We’re concerned that if dengue gains a foothold in Key West, it will travel to other southern cities where the mosquito that transmits dengue is present, like Miami,” said Harold Margolis, chief of the dengue branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“These cases represent the reemergence of dengue fever in Florida and elsewhere in the United States after 75 years,” Margolis said in a statement.

“These people had not traveled outside of Florida, so we need to determine if these cases are an isolated occurrence or if dengue has once again become endemic in the continental United States.”

Dengue is the most common virus transmitted by mosquitoes, infecting 50 million to 100 million people every year and killing 25,000 of them.

It can cause classic flu-like symptoms but can also take on a hemorrhagic form that causes internal and external bleeding and sudden death. Companies are working on a vaccine but there is not any effective drug to treat it.