Var department in southeast France recorded their first locally acquired, or indigenous dengue fever case, according to a report in The Connexion today.
The patient contracted the illness despite not having traveled to a part of the world where the virus is known to be circulating in the past 15 days, the Regional health authority said.
“At the moment, this is a unique and geographically isolated case and there is no immediate concern about the patient’s condition,” health officials note.
This comes after researchers from University of East Anglia (UEA) said the dengue fever risk in Europe will increase as long as climate change heads on it’s current path.
“Our study has shown that the risk of dengue fever is likely to increase in Europe under climate change, but that almost all of the excess risk will fall on the coastal areas of the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas and the North Eastern part of Italy, particularly the Po Valley,” said lead researcher Professor Paul Hunter, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School.
The study is published in the journal BMC Public Health where they look at dengue incidence and various climate variables in Mexico.
Dengue fever is an infectious disease carried by mosquitoes and caused by any of four related dengue viruses. This disease used to be called “break-bone fever” because it sometimes causes severe joint and muscle pain that feels like bones are breaking.
People get the dengue virus from the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. It is not contagious from person to person. For more infectious disease news and information, visit and “like” the Infectious Disease News Facebook page
There are three types of dengue fever in order of less severe to most: the typical uncomplicated dengue fever, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHS) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS). Looking for a job in health care? Check here to see what’s available
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there may be 50–100 million dengue infections worldwide every year. However, new research from the University of Oxford and the Wellcome Trust, using cartographic approaches, estimate there to be 390 million dengue infections per year worldwide.
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