A growing threat to the health of Americans gained momentum this summer as mosquito-borne viruses began appearing with alarming frequency in the United States.
The Centers for Disease Control issued a health advisory for increased risk of dengue infections in the U.S. in June. In August, a New Hampshire man died after contracting Eastern equine encephalitis from a mosquito bite, and cases of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus – including the hospitalization of infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci – increased in parts of the country.
This year has already seen the highest incidence of the mosquito-borne dengue virus globally, according to the CDC, putting hundreds of millions at risk of infection. Dengue symptoms can include high fever, body aches, vomiting, rash and bleeding gums and nose. In severe cases, dengue can be fatal.
What can be done to slow the spread of the world’s most common mosquito-borne illness, already endemic in more than 100 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas?
A new book, “Defeating Dengue: A Multistakeholder Approach to Problem Solving,” published by Columbia University Press, has an answer that holds the potential to mitigate the spread of the virus globally in the years to come.
R. Edward Freeman, a professor in the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, and Andrew Sell, a former senior researcher in Darden’s Institute for Business in Society, co-wrote “Defeating Dengue,” which tells the remarkable story of how an unlikely group of stakeholders combined expertise, innovation and determination to reduce the incidence of dengue infections in an Indonesian community by 77%.
