Texas Hit Hard By Increase In Mosquito-Borne Diseases

Ticks aren’t the only living creatures you have to worry about this summer. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning that mosquito-borne illnesses are on the increase in the country.

Mosquito-related illnesses have been marked by virus epidemics, including West Nile, the most commonly transmitted in the United States, according to the CDC. Overall, illnesses from mosquito, tick and flea bites have tripled in the country between 2004 and 2016. The report found that since 2004, nine vector-borne diseases were discovered or introduced for the first time in the United States and its territories.

The CDC said the nation needs to be better prepared to handle a potential outbreak of a vector-borne disease. CDC Director Robert R. Redfield said in a news release that diseases like Zika, Went Nile and chikungunya have confronted the U.S. in recent years, adding that the country must invest in state and local health departments, which he called the nation’s first line of defense against vector-borne diseases.

Related Story: Tick-Borne Diseases On The Rise In Texas, Elsewhere In US: CDC

In Texas, between 2004 and 2016, there were 6,648 mosquito-borne disease cases, according to CDC data. Texas was in the top 20 percent of states for mosquito-borne diseases and had one of the highest number of disease cases. The CDC says there are indications that disease cases were substantially underreported.

In its report, the CDC wrote that mosquito-borne disease epidemics are happening more frequently. The most number of mosquito-borne illnesses were in Puerto Rico where the CDC reported over 80,000 cases.

Between 2004 and 2016, Chikungunya and Zika caused outbreaks in the US for the first time.

According to the CDC, more people are at risk of being infected because commerce moves mosquitoes, ticks and fleas around the world. Infected travelers can introduce and spread germs across the world and mosquitoes and ticks move germs into new areas of the US, causing more people to be at risk.

Mosquito-borne diseases were marked by virus epidemics and transmissions in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa, accounting for most reports of dengue, chikungunya and Zika. According to the CDC, the occurrence of mosquito-borne diseases was dispersed and not geographically concentrated in one area. West Nile Virus was the most commonly transmitted mosquito-borne disease in the continental U.S.

More than 90 percent of people infected with dengue, chikungunya and Zika in the U.S. were infected in Latin America and the U.S. territories. A limited number of people were infected in Texas, Florida and Hawaii.

The CDC notes that despite the presence of mosquitoes that can transmit diseases, like the aedes aegypti mosquito whose range has been expanding and might be present in 38 states, transmission within the U.S. has been rare.

“Whatever the biologic, economic, behavioral, or land use reasons for these differences, the presence of vectors with proven or possible capacity to transmit a wide range of pathogens leaves the United States susceptible to outbreaks of exotic vector-borne diseases, as demonstrated by the limited local transmission of dengue and Zika viruses in Florida and Texas,” the report says.

The lead author of the CDC study, Dr. Lyle R. Petersen, told The New York Times that warmer weather is an important cause in the surge but he didn’t directly link the increase to climate change. Petersen also said a lack of vaccines and jet travel were factors in the surge.

The CDC says the burden falls on local health agencies to survey and control mosquitoes and nearly all vector control operations are locally funded and operated.

You can find tips on how to prevent mosquito bites from the CDC here.