Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the Center for Disease Control, Urgent alert About dengue fever, which is a painful and sometimes painful disease common in tropical and semi -tropical parts of the world. The agency said that about 3,500 travelers from the United States were injured by dengue acid abroad in 2024, according to an increase of 84 percent over 2023.
On Thursday, UK Health Security Agency A similar warningNoting that there are 900 cases of dengue related to travel in the United Kingdom in 2024, or nearly 300 infections than the previous year. The two reports transfer a similar set of statistics on dengue fever, its symptoms and high cases. But the UK Health Security Agency included an important part of the information deleted by the Disease Control Center: note Why Cases breaking records. She said: “The height is driven by climate change, high temperatures and floods.”
In the past, it was the Center for Disease Control I admitted easily The climate role in the transmission of dengue fever plays – but the political conditions that affect scientific research and federal health communications in the United States have witnessed seismic transformations in the months that President Donald Trump has passed. The new administration has Federal Federal Agency sites from stock signals and climate change Seek Dismantling the scientific infrastructure Those agencies such as the Center for Disease Control Use to understand and respond to A set of health risks – including those offered by global warming.
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Last week, propublica I mentioned The National Institutes of Health, or the National Health Institutes – the largest source of financing for medical research in the world – will close all future financing opportunities for health research. It remains to see whether continuous grants will be allowed to research this intersection. A few days later, US Minister of Health and Humanitarian Services announced Robert F. Kennedy Junior for his agency plans Cole 10,000 people of its working powerIncluding the new discounts at the Center for Disease Control, which was an agency It was established in 1946 In order to prevent a different disease of mosquitoes, malaria, from spreading throughout the United States
Combating, the Group of Guidance will prevent the United States and other countries whose scientists depend on financing the national health institutes from preparing and responding to dengue fever at the moment when climate change causes to cause disease rises. The sudden sabotage of employees and institutions charged with responding to a threat such as dengue fever Because of goodness due to future health crises Since climate change causes disease movements such as mosquitoes, fungi and ticks to expand their historical ranges and infiltrate the new regions.
“The pressure of the disease in the past two years is very dramatic and is moving in one direction -” said Scott O’Neill, the founder of the global mosquito program, a non -profit organization that publishes a genetically engineering mosquito to fight the disease in 14 countries. For example, Brazil – a country that constantly registered the largest number of dengue fever – has recorded historical 10 million cases last year. I mentioned the country 1.7 million cases in 2023.
Two types of mosquitoes that often affect humans with dengue, hearing, and Media, in warm, wet conditions, are more prevalent by high temperatures in the atmosphere caused by fossil fuel combustion. The vast majority of annual dengue fever without symptoms, but about 25 percent of the infected people, depending on the population, and develop symptoms such as fever, headache and joint pain. A small percentage of these cases leads to severe illness, hospital treatment, and even death.
The number of acute dengue infections corresponds to almost the size of the group of people with people each year. In 2023, when there was 6 million dengue infections6000 people died. In 2024, a year was more than 13 million registered cases worldwideMore than 8,000 people died.
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There is no dengue meat treatment. Patients in the most rich countries in general are better than patients in developing areas with limited access to medical interventions such as blood transfusion and places where waves of dengue patients overwhelmed by health care systems that have already been classified. Two dengue fever are available in some countries, but both of them have Dangerous restrictions In terms of effectiveness and time that gives them immunity.
The National Health Institutes began to conduct climate change and health research seriously in 2021, and the institutes have funded dozens of studies that have been achieved in each aspect of climate covered connection since then. Researchers funded by the National Health Institutes of Health sought to understand the warmth of temperatures Transform the geographical domains of mosquitoesAny factors Expecting dengue outbreakHow can societies protect themselves from dengue fever After the harsh weather events.
These studies were conducted in the southeastern United States, where dengue fever has become more prevalent, and internationally, in countries like Peru and Brazil, where dengue fever represents a semi -fixed threat. Also at the National Health Institutes Fundious studies Which makes the world closer to finding medical and technological interventions: the most effective vaccines and engineering mosquitoes that cannot develop dengue fever, among other solutions.
“The disease has no national borders,” said the American biologist who has received funding from the National Health Institutes in the past. She asked for no name or an academic institution affiliated with this story for fear of revenge on the Trump administration. “I am worried that if we do not study it, we will only see it, they are still talking and we will not be prepared.”
Americans not only bring dengue fever to the home from trips abroad; The disease also spreads locally with more intensity in the warmer regions of the country and its lands. Last March, Puerto Rico A state of public health is announced Amid the explosion of cases on the island. By the end of 2024, Puerto Rico More than 6000 cases recorded Passing the threshold in which the disease becomes an epidemic. More than half of the well -known infections led to hospitalization. Close 1000 cases There has been reported there this year, an increase of 113 percent over the same period in 2024. California and Florida were mentioned. 18 and 91 cases of local dengue feverRespectively, last year. California recorded her The first to be local ever Dengue fever condition in 2023.
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“Dengue fever has already been found in many places in the United States that have not seen this disease before,” said Reyzo Gwno, a doctor and head of the Planetary Health Initiative at the Duke Nus Medical College in Singapore. “To combat this climate -related health threat, American scientists must cooperate with others working in dengue abroad. Without resources and ability, how can this cooperation happen?”
There are limited sources of financing for climate and health research. The available funds are provided to American researchers mainly by special foundations such as Gates Corporation and Wilcum Trust. Grants offered by these horses annually pale compared to 40 million dollars Representation allowed annually through the National Institutes of Health for Climate and Health Research two years before Trump took office. Researchers will have to compete for a small group of funding in the coming years, which is likely to lead to less studies and less innovation in the coming years. “The end result will be much lower than this work – we will all tell you to break the Americans in the long run.”
With the spread of dengue with more density in countries where it is already common and slides over the border to areas such as North America where the disease is still relatively rare, clear countries need to expand their arsenals of disease control weapons. But it seems that the United States is being charged in the opposite direction, with thousands of lives at stake.
“It’s the time when it is time to allow ideology,” said O’Neill, whose organization is receiving funding from governments around the world, including the United States, “at a time when we need to accelerate innovation and solutions to very urgent global problems,” including the United States.
