The World Health Organization warned on Friday that cases of dengue fever could reach close to record highs this year, partly due to global warming and the way that climate has helped the mosquitoes that spread it, Reuters reported.
Rates of the disease are climbing worldwide, “with reported cases since 2000 up eight-fold to 4.2 million in 2022,” according to the same source. “Europe has reported a surge in cases and Peru declared a state of emergency in most regions.”
However, international travelers in the U.S. who are looking for protection against this tropical infectious disease spread by mosquitoes will have to wait a little longer.
On July 11, the Japanese drug-maker Takeda voluntarily withdrew its application to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its dengue vaccine candidate in the U.S. after the agency requested more data that the current trial could not capture, according to a press release.
A dengue vaccine from the company is already approved in multiple endemic and non-endemic areas, such as the European Union, United Kingdom, Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia and Thailand.
There is only one dengue vaccine approved by the FDA in the U.S., but it is indicated only for children and teenagers ages six to 16 living in endemic areas — mainly Puerto Rico — who have previously had the infection.
The World Health Organization listed dengue fever as one of the top 10 threats to global health in 2019. Roughly half the world’s population, or about 4 billion people, live in places that are at risk for dengue fever, with some 400 million people infected every year.
One country, Peru, is currently battling its worst outbreak in history. “Dengue is occurring in urban areas where it did not exist before,” Dr. Coralith García, associate professor at the school of medicine at Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, Peru, told Fox News Digital.
Experts blame warmer temperatures and increased rainfall, but even in Lima, the second largest desert city in the world, dengue is flourishing because “it’s so crowded that anything can happen,” she added.
