NPR News: Dengue Fever In Florida Portends A Growing Problem

You may not have heard much about a nasty tropical infection called dengue fever. But that may soon change. Federal health officials have identified the first sizable outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease in the U.S. in 55 years, in the Florida Keys. They say the southern U.S. is ripe for more.

The first cases in the recent outbreak occurred last summer and fall. In August, a New York woman recently back from a Key West vacation came down with the characteristic dengue symptoms — fever, wicked headache, chills, muscle and joint pain, and bloody urine. An alert doctor in Rochester, N.Y., diagnosed dengue fever.

Around the same time, the virus showed up in a woman and a married couple in Key West, none of whom had traveled to areas where dengue is common.

Read more:  Dengue Fever In Florida Portends A Growing Problem | NPR

Delta Air Lines Under Fire for Running "Ghost" Flights from US to Heathrow to Meet Australian Quarantine Regulations

Delta Air Lines Inc. has come under attack by the Campaign for Better Transport, an environmental group, for flying empty planes across the Atlantic to be disinfected. The airlines admitted running "ghost" flights from the US to Heathrow in order to meet Australian quarantine regulations. According to the Guardian, authorities in Australia require inbound airplanes to be sprayed with insecticide to ward off malaria and dengue fever. Delta is not allowed to carry out the treatment in the US and the nearest airport with facilities sanctioned by the Australian quarantine and inspection service (AQIS) is Heathrow, which requires the carrier to make a number of trips to the airport over the past two months.

A Delta spokeswoman said: "Materials used for this process are approved and available for use in the United States; however, according to US regulations, these treatments must be carried out at designated AQIS locations outside the United States."

The Campaign for Better Transport said the round-trip taken by Delta's Boeing 777 jets operating the Los Angeles to Sydney route summed up the "wanton" attitude of airlines towards global warming. Delta is planning to stop its disinfection trips to Heathrow at the end of the month, but is expected to switch to a Chinese airport. (Source: The UK Guardian)

The aviation industry has been under pressure as a prominent producer of greenhouse gases and it has been the subject of a number of "ghost flight" stories.