Who Discovered Dengue Fever?

Dengue fever is a disease common to tropical areas, including such popular tourist destinations as Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. However, once upon a time the virus that causes Dengue was much more widespread in the world, and the virus was first identified in Colonial era North America.

Effects

Dengue symptoms include severe headaches, muscle pains, red skin rashes and high fever. The joint pains associated with dengue have given it the nickname "breakbone" fever. Abdominal problems can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Mild cases are frequently misdiagnosed as influenza.

Features

Dengue is caused by a virus that is transmitted most often by the day-feeding mosquito breed Aedes aegypti. This mosquito also transmits yellow fever.

Geography

Dengue fever is found in tropical countries such as Bangladesh, Brazil, Guyana, Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Venezuela and Vietnam. It is found in places where malaria is also common, but unlike malaria, dengue can be found just as often in urban as in rural areas.

Time Frame

The typical bout with dengue lasts for a week, being punctuated by a spike in fever toward the end.

History

The first definitive Dengue Fever case was identified by Founding Father and Philadelphian Dr. Benjamin Rush in 1779. It was Rush who called it "breakbone fever." At that time, Dengue epidemics were known in North America, although there has not been a case in modern times. That it was a viral infection transmitted by mosquitoes was only discovered much later, in the twentieth century.