The mosquitoes out in force in our neighborhood. We have considered renaming our daughter “Mosquito Bait” – you can literally hear and see the swarms when she steps outdoors on a warm day. While the parental side of me sprays the kid from head to toe in 7% DEET or some herbal remedy (sometimes both) and attempts to drape her in netting, the epidemiologist side runs through the potential diseases that could be transmitted. Arboviral diseases top my mental list, but a few notches down is dengue. Not for any g
ood reason, mostly because I like tropical diseases.
Typically we think of dengue as an imported disease – but if conditions are right, imported diseases can decide to stay. You may have heard about the locally acquired cases of dengue in the Florida Keys in the last year or so (66 cases in 2010). Recently NPR did a nice story on the mosquito issues in the Keys.
The mosquito vector for dengue is Aedes species the so-called “tiger mosquito,” named because of the white striping on the insect’s legs. Aedes has been present in Southern US states for a while, but the population has been growing since the late 1980′s and is currently widespread. The graphic shown here is from the USDA invasive species information center, and depicts the range of Aedes albopictus in 2000 (link from graphic).
Ever take a moment to try and identify a mosquito that’s about to take a bite out of you? If so, you should definitely look into tropical field research – it’s great fun (if a little itchy).
