International travel and increased global incidence affect U.S. rates of tropical diseases
THURSDAY, April 14 (HealthDay News) -- The incidence of and hospitalization for dengue fever increased significantly from 2000 to 2007, according to a study published online April 13 in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Judy A. Streit, M.D., from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of hospitalization trends for dengue fever. The 2000 to 2007 National Inpatient Sample cases of dengue fever were diagnosed based on international criteria. The researchers compared yearly incidence rates during the study period.
The researchers found that, from 2000 to 2007, approximately 1,250 patients were hospitalized for dengue fever. Over the course of the study period, the estimated incidence of dengue increased significantly, from 81 cases in 2000 to 299 cases in 2007. A significant upward trend was seen for the incidence of patients hospitalized with dengue fever during the study period.
"We found a dramatic increase in the number of hospitalizations for patients with dengue fever in the United States. This increase is not surprising considering that 1) the number of cases in disease-endemic regions has increased in recent years, and 2) a substantial number of travelers annually enter the United States from the tropics and subtropics," the authors write.
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