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Researchers Say These U.S. States May Be at Risk of a Deadly Viral Outbreak — Did Yours Make the List?

Dec. 21, 2012 7:15pm Jason Howerton

Researchers Say Texas, Florida, Hawaii at Risk of Dengue Fever Outbreak from Mosquitos

A scientist examines tiger mosquitos on August 9, 2012, in Montpellier, southern France, at a laboratory of the EID center (Entente departementale pour la demoustification) which conducts research on mosquitoes. EID Med is an inter-departmental public organization in charge of the mosquito control to protect public health and environment and improve the quality of life. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

The deadly viral infection known as dengue fever may be gaining a foothold in states like Texas, Florida and Hawaii, according to researchers. The virus, generally associated with tropical areas, infects roughly 100 million people a year. The virus forces about 500,000 people to be hospitalized every year, many of them children, and kills approximately 25,000 people annually.

To put that into perspective, Malaria infects about 219 million people per year and causes about 660,000 deaths.

Business Insider notes dengue fever, which is spread by mosquitoes, is known to create huge shortages in the work force because the infection can last for months.

Per Slate’s Maryn McKenna:

At the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene last month, researchers from the University of Florida revealed that dengue has reappeared in Key West, Fla. The virus they found was not a one-time visitor imported by a tourist or a stray mosquito; it has been on the island long enough to become a genetically distinct, local strain.

The Florida researchers didn’t want to talk about their presentation because they hope to get it published soon in a medical journal. But it turns out other tropical-disease experts have been watching dengue’s return to the United States for a while and wondering what it will mean.

“It really is just a matter of time until dengue re-establishes itself in certain areas here,” says Amesh Adalja of the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “The U.S. has been lucky that it has escaped so far.”

Adalja also told McKenna that dengue, also known as “breakbone fever,” may not “swamp the entire U.S., but the “entire South already harbors those mosquitoes, and that is bad enough.”

“Dengue shouldn’t have to swamp the entire country for us to make it a priority,” she added.

In 2001,122 people in Hawaii were reportedly infected with dengue. It was the first time that it had been reported there since 1944. “A separate outbreak in Brownsville, Texas, in 2005 infected 25, and 90 cases were reported in Key West between 2009 and 2010,” according to Business Insider.

Earlier this month, mosquito control officials in the Florida Keys asked the federal government to sign off on an experiment that would release hundreds of thousands of genetically modified mosquitoes to reduce the risk of dengue fever in Key West.

Featured image via AP

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Comments (73)

wisehiney
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 12:54pm
We used to make Dengue stew on the river bank while catfishing all night. I always wondered why I had a headache the next day.

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mrunner
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 10:43am
Cool! So we have genetically modified mosquitos to help combat this virus! Now they need to work on genetically modified progressives and maybe we can resolve another epidemic and avoid the Obama Zombie Apocalypse!

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- BehindBlueEyes
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 11:51am
  @MRUNNER
  “avoid the Obama Zombie Apocalypse!”
  Too late that happened on Nov 6th of this year.
  
  Report this comment
RIGHT_WHERE_IT_HURTS
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 8:08am
Earth Day mutated into ‘Silent Spring’ into the EPA. A prime example of digression.

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raderby
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 6:17am
since I can’t just post “DDT” since it is all caps I will post this

DDT

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- sheriff32
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 12:22pm
  Wishing fellow Americans death? Reagan would be so proud of you!
  
  Report this comment
- smv803
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 6:24pm
  Well sheriff, what’s your choice of death, liberalism?
  
  Report this comment
samsilver
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 1:16am
release modified insects that should not hurt the ecosystem at all. I wish they would get some of
richard dawsons dna and clone him.besides that you should not mess with mother nature.

BIDDEN/FLUKE 2016 THANKYOU SIR MAY I HAVE ANOTHER!!!

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peter469
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 12:06am
Time to bring back DDT. The only insecticide to stop Malaria in its tracks and should work to kill these Mosquitos. Oh, and for you on the left DDT is still Ok to use for Mosquito Abatement just not for Agricultural use.

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4WheelGuy
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 10:43pm
Look to the Sky People,
http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/you-are-now-breathing-ethylene-dibromide-virally-mutated-molds-nano-particulates-of-aluminum-and-barium-and-ationic-polymer-fibers-with-unidentified-bio-active-material/

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NobleDar
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 10:00pm
Obama promises to confiscate all mosquito within 1 mile of all US cities. Holder warns Americans he will arrest and detain any citizen he feels us intentionally raising mosquitos, calling it an act of terrorism.

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- HappyConservative
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 10:18pm
  Obama hates Texas/Texans just like he hates our military. He did nothing for our state in the 2011 droughts when much of the state was on fire. He’d LOVE to see our state wiped out by this (It’s different than West Nile virus I take it?)
  But this is The Person of the Year!!!! Golly gosh! Surely he doesnt hate white people, conservative states, people who take up arms in defense of our country!! LOL!
  Texas – Secede. I don’t want to live one more day in barry’s communist America.
  
  Report this comment
havsumtea
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 9:03pm
DDT has never been a problem. By banning it we have literally eliminated millions of Africans! Disgusting! The EPA and all of its minions should be corralled into the trains and hauled off to the reeducation camps where they can learn about a free and liberated world, unlike the one they want to put all of us into. Read Beck’s “Agenda 21″ and educate yourselves on what they have in store for us.

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Biblicalman
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:53pm
So let me get this right because I might not be understanding the logic of this. They are reproducing mosquitoes then they are gonna release them so they kill off the other mosquitoes ? Now what happens if a human or cow or bird or dog or cat or any other animal gets infected by one of these genetically modified mosquitoes ?
Remember these just aren’t scientist working on their own. They work for the goverment. Our taxes pay for tis crazy stuff. Shouldn’t we the tax payers have something to say about it? This is kinda like a good movie plot about Zombies lol. Letting mosquitoes go in the wild and it spreads is virus to humans evetually. =P JUst something to think about.

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- Gorp
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 9:57pm
  It’s simple if you look at it from the government’s point of view. They will just inject those who get sick with a genetically modified medicine.
  
  We’re from the Government and we’re here to help.
  
  Report this comment
- RIGHT_WHERE_IT_HURTS
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 7:24am
  The check’s in the mail, too.
  
  Report this comment
- DZ-015
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 7:54am
  And there’s that third promise that is never kept that’s on the tip of the tongue.
  
  Report this comment
- loriann12
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 8:16am
  I lived in Bermuda for years. Bermuda has a problem with several different species of animals. They had a huge cockroach problem, as in huge roaches, not just a huge problem. They imported gheckos to eat them – but it wasn’t on their menu. So they imported a special bird to eat the gheckos, but they didn’t like lizards. So they imorted huge toads to eat the roaches and suppose gheckos, but they didn’t eat either. So, now they had a toad (I’m talking big enough to crash a moped) problem, a bird problem, a lizard problem and still had a roach problem.
  
  And does anyone else have a problem with this field skipping letters when you type? I only have that problem here…have to back up constantly, because it will only type half the letters in a word.
  
  Report this comment
- smv803
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 6:27pm
  It’s the June or the “love bug” all over again! You know those pesky black things, joined together, swarming in the Spring and throughout the summer months. They too were a government invention…I’m not certain why though.
  
  Report this comment
- RetiredAmericanNavyTaxpayer
  Posted on December 24, 2012 at 1:00am
  @ Biblicalman – with all due respect, check the link included about experiments. The idea is to release sterile MALE mosquitoes in the outbreak areas. NOTE: male mosquitoes do not bite/draw blood/pass diseases, only female mosquitoes do. The expectation is that the sterile males will mate with the current generation of females who will produce non-fertile eggs. Not sure of the life-span of mosquitoes but guessing at best it’s 2 years, as up North some species can hibernate through the winter. So theoretically within 2-3 years the particular species that carries/passes Dengue fever couldl be eradicated.
  
  Report this comment
Nanny
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:50pm
The solution is obvious; malaria was almost extinct and it can be again as well as dengue fever. I wonder if there is any one smart enough in Washington who will bring back DDT. Like abortion and euthanasia if they withhold DDT more people will die. It’s called population control.

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- Fecal_Matters
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:55pm
  DDT…never killed anyone! Stopping it’s use did!
  BTW, you drink DDT in your coffee…it’s used in South America…and the bean absorbs the DDT
  
  Report this comment
- Gorp
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 9:59pm
  Is that why coffee tastes so good? With all the coffee I drink I must be immune by now.
  
  Report this comment
RightWingLeftyGolfer
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:44pm
Since dengue fever reportedly keeps folks out of work for extended periods of time, it would appear that dengue has already infected the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives since they’ve done absolutely nothing for four years except screw the citizens.

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- LouisianaPatriot
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:52pm
  LOL! Good one RightWingLeftyGolfer!! Thanks for the chuckle. You hit the nail on the head!
  
  Report this comment
- The Giver
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:59pm
  It must affect their backs, because they “lean forward” an awful lot!
  
  Report this comment
- DZ-015
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 1:13am
  Golfer: Don’t we already have Dengue Harry as Senate Majority Leader?
  
  Report this comment
- 4xeverything
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 7:45am
  So, as lefty “logic” goes…we should introduce these mosquitoes into all American cities because dengue fever will put more citizens on welfare which according to Pelosi will stimulate the economy. Is that about right?
  
  Report this comment
nighttrainno9
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:37pm
Just more crap the govt. is planting to try to kill us off. Ask any liberal where HIV came
from and he’ll tell you Africa. The truth is, it was invented by our wonderful bacterialogical
warfare dept. during the vietnam war, then released first in Africa then all over. Same
with the new flus that appear every year. One of these days they will really screw up
and we will replay ” The Stand” for real.

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Al J Zira
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:16pm
The only thing states are at risk of is Obama when he marches us straight into the poor house and turns us into a third world country.

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- Nervous Investor
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 7:59am
  LOL …. the US is almost there already …. so what do you mean “turn the US into a third word country” ….. the US is about where Jamaica was in 1973 or so …. by 1976 the vote was being suppressed by the expedient of calling a State of Emergency under false pretenses and then by 1979 the country was totally bankrupt … but on the bright side the country was full of all sorts of excellent (newspeak) “Democratic Socialist” programs and policies and was walking to the mountain top hand in hand with Uncle Fidel whilst the politburo seized the “commanding heights” of the economy ….. Jamaica’s economy will not recover for another 100 years and the shame is that the younger generations now alive do not realize the extent to which their futures were destroyed or reduced in opportunity by the political actions of their parents ….. so they make the same idiot mistakes again … and again ….. and the poverty worsens …. hidden from many people’s view through reckless borrowing, printing of money and spending that which the country does not have ….. sound familiar?
  
  BTW Dengue is now a real problem in Jamaica and is deadly in its hemorrhagic form – I was hospitalized with serious dengue this year. Don’t joke with the mosquitoes that spread this disease the aedes aegyptae … spray, fog, use good insect repellant sleep under netting, wear long sleeves etc …. make sure there is NO stagnant water in any sort of container or pool in your area …. even flower pot
  
  Report this comment
- Nervous Investor
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 8:04am
  PS Jamaica HAS strict gun control ….. yet has more gun crime (the criminals even get to rent guns !!!!!) …. and more murder per million people in the population than the US.
  
  Report this comment
taintso
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:10pm
South Texas is in big trouble they got mosquitoes there that can stand flat footed and screw a heifer.

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- chips1
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:29pm
  SJL? Just a wild guess.
  
  Report this comment
TheBurningTruth
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:08pm
One thing that you’ll NEVER see written about in any story about exotic diseases popping up here is just how they get here. They get here through poorly screened or more often unscreened immigrants. Note that this is NOT an illegal vs. legal immigrant issue. It’s about the open-door policy that lets ANYONE in without ANY health checks.

A century ago immigrants were held at immigration ports such as Ellis Island to check their medical condition among other things. Nowadays, they’re checked at customs and into the population in general without an hour of landing.

Back in 2004 I took a trip to Thailand. In order to do this I actively sought out immunizations for a bunch of different diseases. While talking to the GOVERNMENT health professional we got on how these diseases get here. As per the government line, we tourists that get immunizations and stay in these countries for as little as a week (and during winter when the mosquitoes are pretty much gone) are the reason. No, it couldn’t be people that lived 30 or 40 years in those countries without ANY immunization, it had to be tourists.

Politics above the safety and security of our own population.

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- MK2
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 10:04pm
  Did you go there to jump ? I always wanted to go but have never been able to make it out there
  
  Report this comment
RLNoland
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:07pm
Every sense they outlawed DDT to save some birds, millions of people have died. Worry more about birds than people???????????

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- BWH
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:24pm
  It has been proven that DDT never was a problem, it was just thought to have a problem by some goody, goody person. The federal gov’t found it was not a health problem but decided not to do anything about the misperception.
  
  Report this comment
- skippy6
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:34pm
  Yep, now we can’t buy insect killer that works…. When was it banned, anyone know? My guess is early 80′s….oops I had to look it up, off by about eight years.. looks like 1972….
  
  Report this comment
Stelex
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:01pm
Since the NWO ie:the UN want a serious reduction in the population, you will see all sorts of bugs flying soon, CDC say’s this is the worst flu season ever. What other lovely bugs will they release this year, Xmas has a whole new meaning. 7 billion people in the world, the UN goal is 500 million. You really think we’d get there naturally? Ever…….

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- oldguy49
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:14pm
  i was thinking the same thing…..you notice how we have” little” outbreaks of different kinds of viruses just as a test area…..bird flu……….swine flu………..etc
  
  Report this comment
- chips1
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:38pm
  On the Discovery channel, scientists are shocked that it hasn’t happened already. The movie “Outbreak” had a glimpse of how it will happen.
  
  Report this comment
- RIGHT_WHERE_IT_HURTS
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 7:26am
  I’m thinking more like ‘The Stand’, Chips. Maybe that’s what we need.
  
  Report this comment
TrUe.AmEriCaN
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 7:59pm
I swear the blaze comment section is becoming more and more like Huffington Post Liberal setup. Infact the only real differences is at Huffingtonpost they dont try to limit your freedom of speech by defining your every word as if it was a dirty word or racist word. And one dose not have to wait for a half hour before their post appears………………..!

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TrUe.AmEriCaN
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 7:50pm
This story didn’t show up on the blaze nor most conservative media outlets, but BreitBart.com has the scoop……….below

“U.N. Security Council Publicly Condemns Israel; U.S. Sole Dissenter”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/12/20/Every-Member-Of-U-N-Security-Council-Except-U-S-Condemns-Israel
———————————————————-

The US should not take part in anything about the UN nor should we be finacially supporting its corruption and all out foolishness! …………………….. DOWN WITH THE UNITED NATIONS, I STAND WITH ISRAEL !

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- Stelex
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:06pm
  The UN/Progressives/MSM are the enemy. We are being torn apart as a nation by each of them. Its a full assault on the constitution. Many nations around the world are demanding Americans be un armed. Why……why ….because we are the biggest army on the planet and stand in their way.
  
  Report this comment
- PIGSWILLNEVERFLY
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:15pm
  Me too.
  
  Report this comment
- Anonymous T. Irrelevant
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 12:11am
  Get the UN out of the US and get the US out of the UN!
  
  Report this comment
- samsilver
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 3:07am
  i stand in my yard, i dont go down the street and take sides in the mexicans and blacks fights.know why?
  because i got problems of my own.this country needs to stop sending its young people to die and kill
  any other peoples fights and problems.
  BIDDEN /FLUKE THANK YOU SIR MAY I HAVE ANOTHER!!!!!!
  .
  
  Report this comment
qpwillie
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 7:37pm
We could just pass a law banning mosquitoes along with banning guns. That way, there would be no more mosquitoes and no more guns.

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- subic
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 7:55pm
  More Government propaganda. They could be preparing for releasing a bio weapon on us and fall back on the dengue fever story.
  
  I put NOTHING past the Obama administration.
  
  Report this comment
- Stelex
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:13pm
  Or we could arm every American with a gun to fight the vermin bugs. Also the mosquitoes.
  
  Report this comment
For my Liberty!
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 7:34pm
Oh sure…and just like EVERY time the Government has brought in some animal or plant to control something, THEN that exact animal or plant TAKES OVER…Anyone remember Kutzu?

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TSUNAMI_22
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 7:26pm
Mosquitoes being used to spread the mental disorder called “liberalism”?

Genius.

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- starman70
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 7:36pm
  Al quida?
  
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- Al J Zira
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:20pm
  That’s right Tsunami. And when caught by only a few it kills everyone and anything successful around them.
  
  Report this comment
bitterclinger
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 7:26pm
And if people started keeling over, no doubt the EPA — our bettes — would prohibit spraying. It would be dangerous for the mosquitos.

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- Grannie4news
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 7:32pm
  @BITTERCLINGER: That was a good one and probably true. LOL
  
  Report this comment
Elena2010
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 7:25pm
Bring back DDT! Eradicate the mosquitoes that spread this and malaria in Africa while we’re at it.

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- progressiveslayer
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 7:36pm
  Progs in Amerika banned DDT and in Africa resulting in many unnecessary deaths,the progs are a racist lot allowing all those deaths in the sub continent,maybe they’re trying to fulfill Margret Sangers dream of a world void of blacks.
  
  Report this comment
- crazyrightwingmom
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:03pm
  The banning of DDT is criminal. Those people are murderers! It is harmless. We used to play running behind the DDT spray trucks…I’m still humming along!
  
  Report this comment
- Stelex
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:10pm
  I remember those days……..we looked forward to the trucks running through our area, we used to ride our bikes in and out of the cloud.
  
  Report this comment
- chips1
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 8:49pm
  Reminds me of Guam in 1954.
  
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