Dengue Fever Surfaces in Key West

Florida hasn't seen a case the rare disease in more than 80 years

As if swine flu wasn’t enough to scare you away from human contact, a disease rarely seen in a developed country has reportedly surfaced on South Florida shores.

A woman in Key West had recently come down with a bout of the Dengue fever, the first such reported case in Florida in over 80 years.

The woman, who was visiting from New York, may have contracted the virus in the Keys, according to physicians in New York. Mosquitoes, not humans, can be thanked for the transmission of the virus.

Key West officials have yet to confirm that woman had Dengue or contracted it in Monroe County, but they have stepped up efforts to spray for mosquitoes throughout the area to ensure there will be no outbreak of the virus.

Symptoms of dengue include high fever, headache, pain behind the eyes, backache, joint pains and sometimes rash. The pain can be so excruciating to the joints that the fever is sometimes called "breakbone" or "bonecrusher" fever.

And Dengue can develop into a deadly type of disease called dengue shock syndrome.

The mosquito that transmits the potentially deadly virus hunts in the day as opposed to other mosquito species which prefer for the cool of night. Looks like picking your poison might be between an insect and swine.

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