dengue fever

Dengue fever was commonplace in Florida until the 1930s. Air conditioning, window screens and better mosquito control helped break the dengue cycle. Now the mosquito-borne illness is back.

There could be as many as 400 million dengue infections worldwide each year, making it more common than malaria, according to a new study. One reason for the huge increase in estimated infections is that dengue has been spreading far and wide to regions outside the tropics.

Decades after its eradication, the "breakbone fever" has become endemic again in the Florida Keys. Scientists say that Floridians infected during a recent outbreak didn't catch the virus abroad but rather got a dengue strain that's unique to Key West.