Miami health officials Friday confirmed the first locally contracted case of dengue fever in the county in more than six decades and called on residents to take measures to fight infection.
“Miami-Dade county health department officials received confirmation of the first locally acquired case of dengue fever in Miami-Dade County,” the agency said in a statement.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said an outbreak of dengue fever in nearby Key West earlier this year was the first locally contracted infection across the state of Florida since 1934.
Health officials said the Miami patient had “fully recovered from this illness,” without giving further details.
Officials were working to control the mosquitoes that spread dengue by eliminating standing water, such as in bird baths and abandoned tires, and spraying vacant homes.
The infection, rarely fatal, is carried by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
Twenty-eight cases of dengue fever were reported in nearby Key West earlier this year, which according to the CDC were the first in the United States — outside the Texas-Mexican border region — since 1945.
Miami, Nov 12, 2010 (AFP)
