(Ed. Note: Read about Dengue Fever at Mayo Clinic.com)

Medpage Today

“An estimated 5% of residents in Key West, Fla. — more than 1,000 people — show evidence of infection with dengue fever, according to a report from the CDC and the Florida Department of Health.”

…”We’re concerned that if dengue gains a foothold in Key West, it will travel to other southern cities where the mosquito that transmits dengue is present, like Miami,” Harold Margolis, MD, chief of the dengue branch at the CDC, said in the statement.

“These cases represent the re-emergence of dengue fever in Florida and elsewhere in the U.S. after 75 years,” Margolis said. “These people had not traveled outside of Florida, so we need to determine if these cases are an isolated occurrence or if dengue has once again become endemic in the continental U.S.“ (Emphasis added)

Source: Medpage Today, July 14, 2010