The Aedes mosquito is responsible for the dengue fever
outbreak that’s been terrorizing the Big Island, and the zika virus that has
infected several Hawai`i residents while traveling, and now another Aedes
passenger, yellow fever, is spreading.
Yellow fever is famously the disease that killed thousands
during the construction of the Panama Canal in the early years of the last
century. Malaria, another of the major disease of the Panama Canal
construction, is caused by a different mosquito genus, Anopheles.
The worst effects of those diseases around the Canal Zone were
controlled by aggressively draining swamps, pouring kerosene on any standing
water, and installing domestic water systems, so catchment rain barrels could
be replaced. The barrels were perfect mosquito breeding areas.
Hawai`i has the Aedes mosquito, and has had several dengue
fever outbreaks. Recently, with the spread of zika virus from Africa to Asia,
across the Pacific and into the Americas, the mosquitoes are responsible for a
new disease outbreak.
And now, another Aedes-carried disease is breaking out.
Yellow fever, which has been a constant threat in some parts of the tropical world,
has taken a turn for the worse in Africa, and has spread to China.
The medical journal, The Lancet, has just published a new
paper, Yellow Fever: A Global Reckoning,
calling it a “global health security risk.”
The new outbreak started in 2015 in Angola, and has spread
to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and China. Vaccines against yellow
fever have run out in Angola. Unlike dengue and zika, there is a vaccine that
provides lifelong protection.
Yellow fever can present with flu-like symptoms—fever,
chills, severe headache, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting and fatigue. Most people
recover, but 15 percent develop liver damage, jaundice, organ failure and in
some cases death. The disease gets its name because of the yellowed skin and
yellow eye whites of people with severe cases.
During the late 1800s and the first decade of the 1900s,
sailors referred to the disease as Yellow Jack, and reportedly were more afraid
of it than any other disease.
A case of yellow fever came to Hawai`i with a
visitor, who was immediately quarantined. The disease may have spread to one
additional person, a quarantine guard. Because of the Panama Canal yellow fever
crisis, health officials were aware of the disease, and knew how to set up an
effective quarantine.
Meanwhile, in news about Zika, which has been found in
Hawai`i residents who caught it while traveling abroad, there are not reported
cases of local transmission. Zika has been reported on several islands, all in
people who had traveled to zika-infested areas. In January, a Hawai’i woman who
had traveled to Brazil gave birth to a child with birth defects.
In addition to birth defects among a small percentage of
infected pregnant women, zika has been linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, and
recently with another attack on the nervous system, acute myelitis.
For more information see our previous pieces on zika: Zika,not your friend, and Zika and birth defects.
You can also search our blog for several articles on dengue.
Here was the first, from last November.
© Jan TenBruggencate 2016
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