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This is Lindsay Smith Rogers. Dengue fever and other mosquito-borne diseases are spreading to new parts of the world

thanks to climate change. Today, Stephanie Desmond talks to Dr. Anna Durbin, a vaccine expert at

Johns Hopkins, about why these diseases are gaining so much ground, the public health emergency

declared in Puerto Rico, and what tools are in the pipeline to prevent greater spread?

Let's listen.

Anna Durbin, thanks so much for joining me.

Oh, it's my pleasure. As always, step.

So today I want to talk about Dengay, and it feels like it's all over the news.

So first, let's start with, what is Dengay?

Right. Well, it's so interesting because we hear Dengue and we think in the singular, but it's really four different viruses, four different dengi viruses causing denge disease.

So the dengi viruses are transmitted by mosquito.

So it's a mosquito-borne illness that's really prevalent in all tropical

and subtropical regions of the world. So think Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Southeast Asia.

And it really is a disease that seems to just be spreading more rapidly. Certainly, we're seeing more cases this year and last year

than we've seen in a very long time.

And I understand that one thing about Dengay

is that it gets worse when you get it a second time.

You're the one who taught me that years ago.

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