Dengue Fever Is Already A World-Wide Epidemic

While an estimated 12,500 people worldwide died in 2009 from the H1N1 Swine Flu and billions of dollars were spent on a vaccine to halt its spread, another world-wide health epidemic already currently threatens over 2.5 billion people worldwide - and is increasingly spreading from such places as Mexico into the United States. This is the mosquito-born illness known as the Dengue Fever. Originally confined to Southeast Asia, because of globalization and climate warming, it is a disease that is rapidly spreading throughout the world. What is particularly alarming about the Dengue Fever are three of its characteristics: (1) infected individuals can travel from one country or state to another, and when bitten by a mosquito, can pass the disease on to other individuals bitten by the same mosquito; (2) in some cases, the death rate from the Dengue Fever has been as high as twenty percent; and (3) one's chances of severe complications or dying from the Dengue Fever rise as one is infected more than once.