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Dengue fever outbreak in Latin America

Infection Control Monitor, October 5, 2007

Physicians need to raise their level of suspicion for travelers to Latin American and the Caribbean who return home with a fever, as dengue fever is spreading across that area of the world in one of the worst outbreaks in decades.

The outbreak has affected hundreds of thousands of people and killed nearly 200 so far this year, reported the Associated Press (AP). Dengue fever, which is carried by mosquitoes, is known as "bonebreak fever" because it causes agonizing joint paint and flu-like symptoms.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has posted advisories this year for people visiting Latin American and Caribbean destinations to use mosquito repellant and stay inside screened areas whenever possible. "The danger is that the doctors at home don't recognize the dengue," Wellington Sun, MD, the chief of the CDC's dengue branch in San Juan told the AP.

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