Current Event 1/9/08
Summary: It’s the next west nile virus pandemic. It’s called Dengue, it is a tropical infection with flu like illnesses. It is said to be one of the most important reemerging infectious disease. There are and estimated 50 to 100 million cases per year. So far there have been 500,000 hospitalizations and an estimated 22,000 deaths (mostly children). They compared this to the west nile virus which killed 98 people last year. For dengue there are no real symptoms just maybe a mild fever but, if left untreated, it is very deadly.

Opinion: I feel as though if we weren’t trying to make every place into a miniature china and if we had better mosquito control then we could prevent things like this from happening. Also, with all the flying if there were some sort of medicactions or doctor on board to help this could maybe cut down the number of deaths. Thus, reducing this disease to nothing.