An Outbreak of Dengue

All travelers entering the U.S. last week from Jamaica and Puerto Rico were closely checked for signs of a disease that most of them never heard of: dengue (pronounced deng-gay) fever. The disease hit the Caribbean in July. Ever since, officials with an anxious eye on the coming winter's tourist trade (normally 20,000 to 25,000 visitors a month for Puerto Rico alone) have been waiting hopefully for the epidemics to die out. They are still waiting. New cases last week brought Jamaica's 1963 total close to 500, while Puerto Rico passed the 15,000 mark and was still reporting 200 new cases a day. Chances are that many cases have gone unreported.

Dengue is seldom a fatal illness. But it is one of the most painful of infectious diseases, which explains its other name, breakbone fever. About a week after injection of the virus by a biting mosquito, the victim develops a fever, chills, excruciating headache, pain behind the eyeballs, backache, and pain in muscles and joints. Most victims are sure they are going to die--and many want to. The pain and weakness last for weeks. There is no specific medication; the only treatment is aspirin, lots of fluids and bed rest.

The U.S. has had no epidemic of dengue for 20 years, but Public Health Service officials are worried that a single infected traveler might reseed the virus in mainland mosquitoes. The usual carrier is the urban and suburban mosquito Aedes aegypti, also the carrier of yellow fever. It is found in at least nine Southern states, where it breeds in cans, old tires and holes in trees.

For all the pain it has caused, the Caribbean flare-up of dengue has hadsome worthwhile effects. It has spurred authorities in both Jamaica and Puerto Rico to step up their neglected anti-mosquito spraying. And Congress has appropriated $3,000,000 as a starter on a $45 million campaign to wipe out Aedes aegypti completely in the U.S.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.