Meg Norris was traveling in Argentina in April when the first signs of dengue fever hit her. The weather in Salta, just south of the Bolivian border, was warm, but Norris, a 33-year-old from Boulder, Colorado, zipped a fleece sweatshirt around her body to stop herself from shivering. “I thought it was sun poisoning,” she said. She woke that night in a sweat and spent the hours alternately burning up then freezing. In the morning, her eyes were sore and her lymph nodes were swollen.
Local transmission has also occurred in Arizona, Florida and the southern coast of Texas. Last summer brought record-breaking heat waves to Europe, where cases of local dengue transmission were seen in France, Italy and Spain. “I think this means dengue will become more common,” said Paz-Bailey, adding that the main concern is still the significant increase in cases where the virus is already endemic. This summer, she does not expect to see significant dengue outbreaks on the U.S.