ABSTRACT
The threat of dengue, initially looming most heavily over Southeast Asia, has come to weigh profoundly on Latin America as well, through both socioeconomic processes and the natural history of disease. The dengue epidemic has been linked to increased population movement and rapid urbanization, although the mechanisms by which such associations exist are not well documented. The Southern states have indigenous Aedes populations, which predisposes the region to autochthonous dengue transmission and outbreaks—of which six occurred in south Texas between 1980 and 2004. During the 1990s, dengue arrived in Latin America's only remaining dengue-free countries, Panama and Costa Rica. In 1994, Den-3 was reintroduced after seventeen years of absence, causing several outbreaks, such as in Nicaragua. As a result, cities become the epicenters of dengue epidemics. Urban areas appear not only to act as sources of dengue transmission but also to generate strains with greater epidemic potential.
