Dengue virus found in Arizona (Peoria: insurance, pool, health)

[Arktikos]

I wasn't aware that mosquitoes even existed in Arizona. At least the good news is that the climate isn't ideal for their proliferation.

https://gizmodo.com/dengue-virus-ari...9d7a3ca4f7fe3f

[grmi66]

We have a variety of mosquitoes that many call "Egyptian Mosquitos". They are a hardy species that only requires a small pool of stagnant water to breed in. So an empty bucket or planter, birdbath or wheelbarrow is all the space they need to reproduce.

Fairly new immigrants to Arizona, before 1994 I rarely if ever got bit by a mosquito in Arizona. Then some Egyptian Mosquitoes hitchhiked into the state in some empty tires being shipped to a tire store. Remember reading a newspaper article about how they traced them and where the epicenter of the mosquito outbreak was.

[Prickly Pear]

Aedes aegypti often carry most of the famous vector borne diseases that we concern ourselves with like Zika and West Nile. They are also the most common species here with the second being aedes albopictus. The two look nearly identical to the untrained eye.

It should be noted that Arizona still even has detected cases of the Black Plague in animals such as fleas and prairie dogs.

This is why continuous public health surveillance is important to identify potential epidemics before they turn into pandemics. One off cases like this usually result in nothing but the potential of what we can do to save in the 0.0000001% chance it does grow into something is too significant to pass up. I hope people learned this lesson after COVID-19.

[Mike from back east]

We had a man here in our community in far NW Peoria bitten by a mosquito and he contracted West Nile Virus (WNV). He was 64, no insurance, no Medicare. While in the hospital being treated for WNV he got COVID-19. Last we heard, over a year ago, was that the combined illnesses made him a quadriplegic and he was confined to a nursing home. His story made the local news.

Our community has a golf course, waters heavily (with non-potable recycle water) and sprays several times each summer season, from monsoon to fall, to kill the mosquitos.

They're here, and they can kill you.

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by Dave K54

Ah-ha! Golf courses and water! But one can't help to wonder how these diseases that occur in mostly third world countries arrive here in the U.S.

Don't look now but according to CDC Arizona and California host the highest numbers for WNV and now dengue is introduced as well? Would I be a conspiratorial theorist to conclude that the spread of these deadly diseases could have something to do with the wide-open borders?

Conspiracy thinking, indeed.

People come and go from and to third world countries every day with passports and visa.

[jdhpa]

Originally Posted by Prickly Pear

Aedes aegypti often carry most of the famous vector borne diseases that we concern ourselves with like Zika and West Nile. They are also the most common species here with the second being aedes albopictus. The two look nearly identical to the untrained eye.

It should be noted that Arizona still even has detected cases of the Black Plague in animals such as fleas and prairie dogs.

This is why continuous public health surveillance is important to identify potential epidemics before they turn into pandemics. One off cases like this usually result in nothing but the potential of what we can do to save in the 0.0000001% chance it does grow into something is too significant to pass up. I hope people learned this lesson after COVID-19.

Unfortunately, I think the lesson people learned from COVID is that our elected officials and health officials overreact. There are diseases that would warrant the response we got from them on COVID, but COVID-19 isn't one of them.

If we get hit with a virus that truly does deserve that type of response many people will not believe the officials because of their overreaction to COVID. If you're thinking it will only affect the people who don't believe them you're wrong, it will affect everyone.

When you're making decisions that affect other people you only get one shot to prove your good judgement, and most elected and health officials blew it on COVID.

[thedirtman]

Originally Posted by jdhpa

Unfortunately, I think the lesson people learned from COVID is that our elected officials and health officials overreact. There are diseases that would warrant the response we got from them on COVID, but COVID-19 isn't one of them.

If we get hit with a virus that truly does deserve that type of response many people will not believe the officials because of their overreaction to COVID. If you're thinking it will only affect the people who don't believe them you're wrong, it will affect everyone.

When you're making decisions that affect other people you only get one shot to prove your good judgement, and most elected and health officials blew it on COVID.

COVID-19 was of an illustration of what happens when health scientists and officials have to face something brand new. If there is little research and no database health specialists don't know what to tell public officials. The public official response was off the mark, but little wonder. Worse yet, the reaction of the public itself was particularly off in the United States, and a few other nations.