What is dengue? This doctor explains what you need to know about the virus
What is dengue? How may cases are there? How severe is it?
Dengue is a virus spread through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquitoes, which can also spread Zika or chikungunya.
Carlos Espinal, director of the Global Health Consortium at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health at Florida International University, said that when people are infected by dengue for the first time, most of them are asymptomatic. However, severe dengue can be life-threatening within a few hours and often requires care at a hospital.
Up to 400 million people get infected with dengue every year around the world, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). About 100 million of those infected will get sick from infection, only 40,000 die from severe dengue.
The Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade issued on Monday a mosquito-borne illness advisory after confirming the first local case of dengue infection this year.
To learn more about how to protect yourself from mosquito-borne diseases, click on the video below:
