# 5025
Although still running nearly 3 times above the epidemic threshold for this time of year, the number of new Dengue cases reported by the CDC in their latest weekly surveillance has dropped by nearly 40% over the past couple of months.
Roughly 600 new suspected Dengue cases were reported during the first week of October, along with 1 death.
The totals for 2010 far exceed that seen in the last big Dengue epidemic on that island back in 1998, when 19 deaths and a little over 10,000 cases were recorded.
The latest weekly surveillance report for Puerto Rico may be found at this link.
While this is a hopeful trend, we’ll have to wait a few weeks to see what impact – if any – the rains brought to Puerto Rico by its brief encounter with Tropical storm Otto in early October ultimately have on the mosquito population and the incidence of disease.
Track of T.S. Otto
Over the past year, there have been a relative small handful of Dengue cases reported in Florida as well.
The latest arbovirus surveillance numbers from the Florida Department of Health report a total of 56 locally acquired cases of Dengue in Florida this year.
- 55 cases in Key West
- 1 Case in Broward County
- Additionally, there have been 115 cases of Imported Dengue in Florida (recent travelers returning from Dengue endemic areas)
Although the overall risk of contracting a mosquito-borne illness in Florida is very small, this (along with West Nile, EEE, SLEV, and other rare arboviral threats) is why health departments continue to urge people to remember to follow the `5 D’s’:
For more on these, and other vector borne diseases, you may wish to revisit:
ASTMH: Dengue and Insect-Borne EIDs In The US
MMWR: Dengue Epidemic In Puerto Rico
MMWR: Dengue Fever In Key West
Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE)
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