Dengue is Endemic in U.S. Territories and Associated States

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Laura Adams, DVM, MPH, and Liliana Sánchez-González, MD, MPH, presented 'What Clinicians Need to Know about Dengue in the United States' during the Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity Call on September 29, 2022.

The CDC insights are essential since dengue is endemic in six U.S. territories and freely associated states, such as Puerto Rico.

In 2022, the CDC confirmed 311 dengue cases in the U.S. States and 145 cases by Territories.

Furthermore, five locally-acquired dengue cases have recently been confirmed in south Florida.

Additionally, the CDC encourages healthcare providers to recognize the three dengue phases (febrile, critical, convalescent) and the severity levels of symptomatic dengue (dengue, dengue with warning signs, severe dengue) based on a patient's clinical and laboratory findings.

Dengue is caused by one of four related viruses.

For this reason, a person can be infected with a dengue virus as many as four times during their lifetime.

Each year, up to 400 million people get infected with dengue worldwide, and 40,000 die from severe dengue, says the CDC.

Dengue viruses are spread to people through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito.

The CDC confirmed three doses of the U.S. FDA-approved Dengvaxia™ vaccine are indicated for the prevention of dengue in people 9–16 years old with laboratory confirmation of previous dengue virus infection and living in dengue-endemic areas. 

And Takeda's QDENGA® vaccine was recently approved in Indonesia.

QDENGA is the only dengue vaccine approved for use in individuals regardless of previous dengue exposure and without needing pre-vaccination testing. 

Additional dengue vaccine news is posted at Vax-Before-Travel.