Revelation 6:7,8 NCV When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill people by war, by starvation, by disease, and by the wild animals of the earth.
Health officials in Hawaii are currently investigating more than 100 cases of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne illness that experts say can lead to potentially lethal complications in rare cases.
The Hawaii Department of Health says on its website that there were 122 confirmed dengue cases as of Wednesday. The disease isn’t endemic (regularly found) in Hawaii, it says, but it can occasionally be brought in from someone who traveled to an endemic region and got infected.
However, the department indicates this is a cluster of people who contracted the disease locally.
It’s the first such outbreak since a 2011 cluster of cases in Oahu, the department says. According to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention records, only five people fell ill in that outbreak.
This cluster is on Hawaii Island, the big one. CNN reported that CDC officials were traveling to the island on Wednesday and bringing specially designed mosquito traps to help catch the bugs.
Of the 122 confirmed cases, the health department says 106 are residents of the island and 16 were visiting. Ninety three were adults and 29 were children. They began falling ill between Sept. 11 and Nov. 24. No deaths have been reported, but the disease has been known to kill.
The World Health Organization (WHO), an arm of the United Nations, says dengue causes a flu-like illness and is traditionally found in the tropics and subtropics. But it says the disease has rapidly spread to new areas in recent years and roughly half the world’s population is at risk.
The disease is carried by certain types of mosquitos and transmitted to humans through bites. Symptoms can include a high fever, severe headaches, swollen glands and joint and muscle pain.
Dengue itself is seldom deadly, according to the WHO, but in some instances it can lead to severe dengue. That can cause respiratory distress, severe bleeding and organ impairment.
About 500,000 people (most of whom are children) need to be hospitalized for severe dengue treatment every year, according to the WHO, and approximately 2.5 percent of those who develop the disease die. Severe dengue has been a major issue in Asia and Latin America, the organization says, and is one of the top causes of hospitalization and death for children there.
The WHO says detecting the disease early enough and having access to medical care facilities drops the dengue mortality rate below 1 percent. The Hawaii Department of Health says it’s still safe to travel to the state, and a CDC official told CNN that the overall risk of getting infected is low because mosquitos in the United States have not been known to transmit the virus well.
