
Dengue, aka "Breakbone Fever", Is Back - drucken
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/pandemics/2012/12/dengue_fever_in_united_states_breakbone_fever_outbreaks_florida_texas_and.single.html
======
soapdog
back??? I live in Rio, it never left... We have thousands of sick people every
year. I caught it two or three times already. Horrible thing. Its so common
that we know in which months it will strike worse.

For those of non tropical countries that are really scared, there are some
tricks while you have it. First and foremost: drink insane amounts of water.
Dengue will take all the water out of you thru its constants diarrheas. You
need water more than you need food, drink more water. You will have very high
fever, control it with meds but be aware that it won't go away. You will have
pain in the extremities of your body (fingers, hands...), you can try to mask
it with meds but you learn to live with it for a while, makes it hard to
sleep.

Here in Brazil we have something we call "Soro Caseiro" which everyone learns
to prepare at home, its one of your main ally against dehydration. You mix 1
liter of water with 3.5g of salt and 20g of sugar. You drink this to prevent
dehydration or in the initial phase of your dengue. If things get really bad,
you will need a hospital.

On my personal experience with this nasty disease, I've found that drinking
Pedialyte helped me a lot. You may think it is dumb to drink baby fluid
replacement med but it works and doesn't taste as bad as "Soro Caseiro", here
in Brazil we have Pedialyte flavored like orange juice, so makes it easier.

Remember dengue is a bitch and can be very serious. When you get it, you need
to see a doctor. All the tips I've placed above are useless if you get the
more worrisome types (which are more rare), so go see a doctor.

And remember: don't despair

~~~
baseh
Thanks for the Pedialyte tip, never heard about it but sounds helpful. Will
try when I get dengue next time!

~~~
maratd
Just as an FYI, at my local grocery store (Whole Foods), you can buy
Electrolyte Water by the liter. It's essentially pedialyte for adults. There's
also Gatorade, which is an electrolyte drink for athletes, etc.

~~~
cperciva
_There's also Gatorade, which is an electrolyte drink for athletes, etc._

Note: If you're dehydrated, raw Gatorade will probably not help you, since
it's too concentrated. A 50/50 mixture of Gatorade and water is much better.

------
buster
Also worth to mention is that on Madeira (Portugal) the biggest outbreak in
Europe happened since 1920. Experts say that it will spread to the mainland
soon..

[http://translate.google.de/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=...](http://translate.google.de/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.welt.de%2Fgesundheit%2Farticle111380176%2FGroesster-
Ausbruch-von-Dengue-Fieber-seit-100-Jahren.html&act=url)

~~~
munchor
I'm Portuguese and this has been on the news for a few months now, it's quite
scary to think of the consequences this can have when it reaches the mainland,
especially in the USA, where over 200 million people live.

~~~
ra
Dengue has always been around in the tropics and subtropics.

"There are around 50 million cases of dengue fever around the world each year
according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Of those, about 500,000
people contract severe dengue, which is a potentially life-threatening." [1]

It's a nasty disease, but it's no Ebola.

[1] <http://www.health.qld.gov.au/dengue/info/worldwide.asp>

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rdl
Ugh. A dive instructor friend of mine caught this in Thailand and was
weak/sick for months. It's scary. If this becomes endemic in the US, going
outside will be taking your health in your hands, and we'll probably end up
draining a bunch of marshland, re-introducing DDT, etc. since on balance
losing birds is better than losing people.

~~~
david_b
Much as I want to, DDT isn't the wonder-pesticide it is sometimes seen as (it
affects not only birds - the german article has more info on wildlife, the
english more on human health effects): <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT>
Also, I want to see how you drain Florida :-)

~~~
rdl
It doesn't seem anywhere near as bad as malaria or dengue. It does seem to
disproportionately affect children, but doing something like spraying border
areas with low population density would probably still be a win.

I think in the US we could afford to just use malathion.

Draining Florida would best be accomplished by just declaring it an exclusion
zone from human habitation :) (Florida basically terrifies me more than any
other state in the US, even California)

~~~
w1ntermute
Yeah, I never understood why people want to live in Florida. It gets
unbearably hot, you get hurricanes every year, and you're susceptible to
tropical diseases. Seems to me that there are a lot better places to live in
the US, where you don't have a tropical climate.

~~~
lutusp
Strictly speaking, Florida is unfit for human occupation. Even when hurricanes
aren't blowing, it's the thunderstorm capital of the country. Runner-up in the
uninhabitable sweepstakes is New Orleans, which is mostly below sea level and
only "dry land" because of unreliable dikes that periodically fail. Over time,
because of land subsidence in New Orleans itself, and because of a gradual
increase in worldwide sea level, New Orleans becomes more and more dangerous.

When you perform an economic analysis, you discover it would be cheaper to pay
everyone in New Orleans to move away, than to let them live there and pay for
the disasters that inevitably blow in from the sea. Florida is only slightly
safer on average, and that only because the northern reaches are sufficiently
above sea level.

~~~
rdl
Oh, my problems with Florida are the crime rates and percentage of fraudulent
businesses based there, plus huge number of retirees and associated transfer
payments.

New Orleans (and Florida) both are necessary port logistics areas, but
shouldn't be heavily populated. New Orleans is gateway to the Mississippi
which is basically the industrial/agricultural 60% center of the country.

------
nanidin
One can always hope that this leads to innovation in mosquito repellents and
mosquito targeted insecticides. Either would also have the added benefit of
helping prevent the spread of malaria in other parts of the world.

I've been in SE Asia for around 6 months now and Dengue is one of the few
things that truly frightens me.

~~~
melling
Whatever happened to the mosquito laser?

[http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20120903/07...](http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20120903/07334520256/forget-
death-star-anti-mosquito-lasers-heres-how-nathan-myhrvold-can-help-tackle-
malaria-improve-his-image.shtml)

~~~
ovi256
That was a show trick, very impressive on paper (or Youtube, as it were). At
most it could be commercialized as an expensive gadget for first-worlders, if
even that. Maybe in twenty years, when Moore's law will make it dirt cheap.

------
dannyr
Related News:

Hundreds of thousands of genetically modified mosquitoes set to be released
into the Florida Keys in experiment to fight dengue fever

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2244272/Florida-
offi...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2244272/Florida-officials-
consider-releasing-genetically-modified-non-biting-mosquitoes-battle-dengue-
fever.html)

~~~
justanother
The main resistance to this idea here in the Keys, is that nobody really wants
to be bitten by a genetically-modified mosquito (even though the odds of it
happening are miniscule, the released skeeters will be males). We have a very
well-funded, state-chartered Mosquito Control District, but it is unable to
enter property and conduct standing-water investigations by people who won't
let that gosh darn gummit on their property without a warrant. I'd prefer both
genetically-modified mosquitos, and special warrants from the governor to
check standing water, to getting Dengue. Some of my friends have, and they
were very sorry for weeks.

~~~
pixie_
I lived in key west and always had random people in my backyard inspecting for
standing water. Even woke up to a helicopter one morning overhead spraying for
mosquitoes. I got dengue in 2010 and it suuuucked, the eye pain is incredible,
you can't move your eyes without extreme pain. And at the time I had no idea
what it was, and it turns out the awareness of it is still low because many
people work in the service industry and don't have health insurance so most
people avoid the doctor (like myself) didn't know I dengue until afterwards..
like the article says 5% of people in key west have had it at some point which
sucks because if you get it again (and a different strain of it) anytime after
in your life then you have a 20% chance of dying.. which I hate thinking about
when I travel to costa rica. I got a bug zapper and have been massacring
mosquitoes nightly. I dont know why there isn't one on every lamppost. /rant

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xradionut
We've already gone through West Nile in the DFW area this year. A very mild
winter followed by a wet spring helped increase the number of serious cases.
There is some thought that climate changes plus increased migration to the
area is creating a rich environment for health challenges like these.

------
sek
A friend of mine caught this, it's common in Indonesia where he was.

It's not that dangerous if you are educated about it. Never take Aspirin for
example, this can be life threatening, but people tend to use it here when
they feel bad.

It's so difficult to educate the general population about things like that.

~~~
Vivtek
There are four strains. If only one is common in Indonesia, then you're right
- once through is more or less like the flu.

In Puerto Rico there are three strains endemic. The more different strains you
get, the worse the disease (i.e the worse your systemic reaction).

One of my son's classmates died last year of it, in Ponce, Puerto Rico (about
a year after we left PR) - he was home from the hospital, posted to Facebook
"I'm not 100% yet but feeling much better", and died that night. He was 11.

Dengue sucks.

