ATLANTA — Confirmed cases of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne tropical disease that can be fatal, rose among U.S. residents in 1998, largely involving Americans who had traveled to Asia and the Caribbean, federal health officials said Thursday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were 90 laboratory-diagnosed cases of the disease in the United States in 1998, the last year for which figures were available. At least seven people were hospitalized and one died.
Dr. Enid Garcia of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases said the 1998 total was a 70 percent increase from the 53 cases reported in 1997.
Of the 90 confirmed cases in 1998, 39 percent involved people who had traveled to the Caribbean, the CDC said. A smaller percentage of cases involved people who were probably infected in Asia.
New York had the highest number of dengue fever cases of any state in 1998, with 22.
Garcia said the rise in U.S. cases parallels a hemispherewide increase in the illness, which is also known as "break-bone fever" because it causes excruciating muscle and joint pains, sudden fever and severe headaches.
There were 741,794 cases of dengue fever in the Americas in 1998, compared with 364,945 in 1997, the CDC said.