United States: While people around the world keep getting bitten by mosquitoes, health departments in the US have identified several other diseases that are caused by flying insects.
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The health officials are pointing out that eighteen people in the US have succumbed to West Nile virus this year, with three in Wisconsin and Illinois.
This year, six cases of eastern equine encephalitis, including a person who died after developing the virus, and dengue cases in several states have been reported. The viruses that cause all three diseases are spread to people through mosquito bites.
According to Dr. Larry Han, an assistant professor of public health and health sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, “What we’ve seen is a rapid uptake in certain viruses that haven’t been in the limelight in recent years. Both West Nile virus and ‘triple E,’ which is eastern equine encephalitis, have had an uptick, particularly post-COVID,” as 6abc.com reported.
Moreover, “There’s also been a rise in dengue relative to what we’ve seen in recent years. And so, these ‘triple threats,’ you might say, have led to more attention and more worry among the general populace,” he added.
The randomness of the season responsible
Some of the experts, when interviewed by ABC News, stated that part of the increase stems from the fact that there is “randomness” in pattern to find the season to have more cases than others, as well as the tendency for mosquito-transmitted diseases to be prevalent in summer and early autumn.
Today, The West Nile virus is the most predominant type of virus transmitted to man by mosquito in the contiguous United States, as postulated by the CDC. It was first recognized in the Western Hemisphere after people were infected in New York City starting in August of 1999.
Additionally, Dengue viruses are transmitted from infected Aedes species mosquitoes, particularly in tropical and subtropical areas of the globe, as explained by the CDC. These are the same mosquitoes that transmit Zika and chikungunya viruses as well, 6abc.com reported.
Compared to EEE, which is a relatively scarce disease, few incidents are reported in the US annually. Like dengue, the majority of cases are in the eastern or Gulf Coast states, according to the CDC.
Most of the individuals infected with the West Nile virus do not show any signs and symptoms, but when they do, they include fever, head ache, body aches, joint pains, diarrhea, vomiting, or rash. Symptoms usually resolve within the first seven days or even less, but muscle weakness and fatigue may manifest for weeks or months.