Japan sees 1st dengue fever case in nearly 70 years

I wonder just where she traveled to in Japan to catch the bug. Typically speaking it is carried by mosquitoes in tropical or semi-tropical climates, in Japan maybe from Kyushu south down to Okinawa.

Dengue has been spreading in recent years, with 50 million to 100 million dengue infections a year

According to Wiki (taking that for what is worth) "50 and 528 million people infected yearly"

i don't think she necessarily had to travel anywhere outside of saitama to get dengue fever. in the summer, honshu feels like a tropical sauna. so it's perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes! One of my students caught malaria while doing humanitarian work in a SE Asian country, but insisted on staying out his full term. I really respected him for that.

I wonder just where she traveled to in Japan to catch the bug.

Good luck trying to get anyone to believe that she caught it from a Japanese mosquito. Another student of mine caught a strange, intractable skin disease when he gashed his foot on a rock diving off the coast of Wakayama. He had to go to a tropical diseases specialist, who refused to believe that he had caught this disease in Japan, and kept trying to get him to admit that he'd been travelling overseas (he hadn't). Other Japanese were equally incredulous - catch a nasty disease like that in Japan? No way!

Once a person is infected by one of the four dengue viruses, he or she will have a lifelong immunity to that type, but not to the other types. During the Vietnam War, dengue usually was the culprit when troops were admitted to field hospitals with fevers of unknown origin. You can be feeling fine one minute and be suffering severe pain 10 minutes later. The headaches are centered behind the eyes, and people who've had dengue fever say any eye movement hurts.

Japan does have the dengue vector A. Aegypti mosquito. There is no natural immunity once infected. In fact, previously infected individuals can develop potentially life threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever. The pathophysiology involves an auto immune response in a previously infected individual.

The best way to prevent dengue is to avoid mosquito bites with the usual preventive measures.

I think the most important thing is whether the girl went abroad or not. if she didn't, it 'd mean there was at least one living mosquito that transmitted the disease to her in Japan. Or did she go to Narita airport?

Time to bring back DDT.

So.........if she didn't travel. Where and how did she catch it? Dengue fever is a huge threat in many parts of Indonesia and kills thousands of people every year. Why does a girl from saitama have it? Should we just write this off as more black news from Saitama?

The government seem remarkably relaxed about this given the mass hysteria that SARS was met with some years ago.

If the girl acquired the disease in Japan it suggests that it won't be long before it spreads across the country. What are the government doing about it? Nothing.

Dengue causes symptoms including fever, severe joint pain and headaches. There is no treatment.

may use that 'untested' medicine (produced by FujiFilm subsidiary) that they are suggesting fo Ebola(?!)

Mainichi news website says she's never traveled outside of Japan.

2 more cases today from the same school.

These particular dengue-carrying mosquitoes are in Tokyo. The local government says you should be careful until late October when they'll probably die out in colder weather. Is there a limit as to how careful you can be not to get bitten by a mozzie without having to walk around dressed like an astronaut ?

@mikeylikesitAUG. 27, 2014 - 09:46PM JST Time to bring back DDT.

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In summer, mosquito season, DDT killed mosquito.

Living in Tokyo, I caught Dengue Fever there five years ago!

The doctors there were incompetent and made me wait forever in my sickly state before even giving me attention or any medicine. They assumed I had the Flu and made me take a swine flu test, which came up negative.

The intense body cramps and excruciating muscle pain and fever made it the worst thing I have experienced. This article only means that for once, the hospitals have properly diagnosed the Dengue. I caught it in 2009 in central tokyo!