Los Angeles area sees more dengue fever in people bitten by local mosquitoes
The Los Angeles area is seeing more cases of people with dengue fever without traveling outside the United States, a year after the first such case was reported in California
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Health officials warned Wednesday that the Los Angeles area is seeing more dengue fever cases in people who have not traveled outside the U.S. mainland, a year after the first such case was reported in California.
Public health officials said at least three people apparently became ill with dengue this month after being bitten by mosquitoes in the Baldwin Park neighborhood east of downtown Los Angeles.
“This is an unprecedented cluster of locally acquired dengue for a region where dengue has not previously been transmitted by mosquitoes,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
Other cases that stemmed from mosquito bites originating in the U.S. have been reported this year in Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, where officials have declared a dengue epidemic. There have been 3,085 such cases in the U.S. this year, of which 96% were in Puerto Rico, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
