Dengue is a disease of the tropics transmitted by a daytime mosquito. According to the Center For Disease Control (CDC) the first reported outbreaks of dengue fever occurred in Asia, Africa and North America between 1779 and 1780. Because the virus had simultaneous outbreaks back then on three separate continents, the viruses have now had a worldwide distribution throughout the tropics for more than two hundred years. But as the CDC site explains, a global pandemic of dengue fever began in Southeast Asia after World War II and has intensified during the last 15 years.

Indeed, there were outbreaks of Dengue in Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Belize as recently as November 2004. Although to BELIZEmagazine.com's knowledge there were no reported deaths, the virus is endemic to the region. There was also a major epidemic in Nicaragua in 1995 and prospects for reversing geographical expansion of the disease are as the CDC puts it, "not promising". For the new strains of the virus continue to grow within highly population density areas. And since there have been no new methods for controlling mosquitoes in recent years, health authorities advise control must be left in the hands of local officials. In a place like Belize where the government deficit is already stretched to its breaking point to put it politely, it is highly unlikely that future epidemics can be prevented.

However, don't cancel that dream trip to the tropics just yet, for just because you live in a land where there is a fast food burger joint literally on every other corner you're not out of the woods by no means. That's right, for there is also the potential for an outbreak in the continental United States of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. From 1997 to 1994 the CDC reports more that 2,247 suspected cases of imported Dengue reported in the US of A. Of those cases 481 were confirmed to be Dengue Fever and that was well over ten years ago. The complied data reflects that southern Texas as well as the south eastern United States where the transmitting mosquitoes are found are at risk for dengue transmission as well as sporadic outbreaks.

In the end, ultimately you will also ask your local physician what inoculating shots you need for that journey of a lifetime to the tropics. He or she will explain to you about malaria and they should warn you about Dengue. But if you happen to be from those parts of America where the mosquitoes roam, be sure to remember when you're out back cooking that hotdog on the family grill early one afternoon and you hear the buzz of the dengue transporting 'Aedes aegypti' that bites only during the day, crush, don't swipe. Or is it swipe, don't crush?