11-19-2015, 08:54 AM
PauHana:
A woman came to the meeting and while asking her question said she has been tested for Dengue!!
For heavens sake if you suspect you have it don't go where you can spread it to lots of people.
Thanks for the report about the meeting. The pest companies not spraying for mosquitos is kinda reminiscent of them not spraying for fire ants outside. Probably folks will start offering these services in the gray market, so to speak.
Not understanding the bit about the woman who was _tested_ for Dengue, though. I would assume if she had it she would be too sick to go to the meeting unless it was in the early days before she was symptomatic--in which case how would she know to get tested? Of course, people's reaction to being infected are subject to a bell shaped curve, even if the SD would be kinda small, so who knows?
Are you suggesting that people with dengue be quarantined? There seems to be a day or two when they may be infected but not symptomatic, so I guess they could go out and about, get bit by a mosquito and then you could get bit by that mosquito. This is how it spreads apparently. With symptoms most folks infected are in bed I would imagine, usually not exposed to more mosquitos.
In any case, you're not going to catch Dengue from a person directly, even if they are frightened enough to get tested without symptoms. (I thought even those _with_ symptoms are having trouble getting tested...?)
Please share your experiences of what works and what does not.
Maybe I am ignorantly cavalier, but having lived/traveled for several years in areas where dengue (as well as yellow fever, malaria, and many other non-mosquito bourne tropical diseases) are endemic--and seeing life go on as normal--it really appears to be a numbers game. Chances are slim of contracting mosquito-bourne diseases with a few bites per month. Hundreds of bites per day for folks in particular circumstances mean much higher chances, obviously.
Hawaii seems to have dengue outbreaks with years of not much in between. I have always been surprised that many tropical diseases like Dengue aren't endemic in Hawaii. I know a woman who got dengue 3 different times in Tahiti (where it is endemic). She has no fond memories of it but it is rarely fatal in a healthy person.
So what has worked for me? Not worrying about it so much, and using sprays when mosquitos are annoying enough to notice. I figure if I worry instead about rat-lung disease and the warm pond flesh-eating bacteria, that will keep the Dengue at bay.
In northern Wisconsin many live in fear of Lime Disease, even if the serious warrior mosquitos there make the Hawaiian mosquitos appear as the miniature offspring of Hello Kitty and My Little Pony. The tropics likely harbor more infectious disease than the temperate regions, and at the risk of paraphrasing dakine, if someone is living in great fear of Dengue, maybe the tropics isn't for them.
Mosquito nets are cheap and effective if people are getting bit at night.
for a map and overview: http://www.cdc.gov/dengue/epidemiology/
Cheers,
Kirt
typo
A woman came to the meeting and while asking her question said she has been tested for Dengue!!
For heavens sake if you suspect you have it don't go where you can spread it to lots of people.
Thanks for the report about the meeting. The pest companies not spraying for mosquitos is kinda reminiscent of them not spraying for fire ants outside. Probably folks will start offering these services in the gray market, so to speak.
Not understanding the bit about the woman who was _tested_ for Dengue, though. I would assume if she had it she would be too sick to go to the meeting unless it was in the early days before she was symptomatic--in which case how would she know to get tested? Of course, people's reaction to being infected are subject to a bell shaped curve, even if the SD would be kinda small, so who knows?
Are you suggesting that people with dengue be quarantined? There seems to be a day or two when they may be infected but not symptomatic, so I guess they could go out and about, get bit by a mosquito and then you could get bit by that mosquito. This is how it spreads apparently. With symptoms most folks infected are in bed I would imagine, usually not exposed to more mosquitos.
In any case, you're not going to catch Dengue from a person directly, even if they are frightened enough to get tested without symptoms. (I thought even those _with_ symptoms are having trouble getting tested...?)
Please share your experiences of what works and what does not.
Maybe I am ignorantly cavalier, but having lived/traveled for several years in areas where dengue (as well as yellow fever, malaria, and many other non-mosquito bourne tropical diseases) are endemic--and seeing life go on as normal--it really appears to be a numbers game. Chances are slim of contracting mosquito-bourne diseases with a few bites per month. Hundreds of bites per day for folks in particular circumstances mean much higher chances, obviously.
Hawaii seems to have dengue outbreaks with years of not much in between. I have always been surprised that many tropical diseases like Dengue aren't endemic in Hawaii. I know a woman who got dengue 3 different times in Tahiti (where it is endemic). She has no fond memories of it but it is rarely fatal in a healthy person.
So what has worked for me? Not worrying about it so much, and using sprays when mosquitos are annoying enough to notice. I figure if I worry instead about rat-lung disease and the warm pond flesh-eating bacteria, that will keep the Dengue at bay.
In northern Wisconsin many live in fear of Lime Disease, even if the serious warrior mosquitos there make the Hawaiian mosquitos appear as the miniature offspring of Hello Kitty and My Little Pony. The tropics likely harbor more infectious disease than the temperate regions, and at the risk of paraphrasing dakine
, if someone is living in great fear of Dengue, maybe the tropics isn't for them.Mosquito nets are cheap and effective if people are getting bit at night.
for a map and overview: http://www.cdc.gov/dengue/epidemiology/
Cheers,
Kirt
typo