Their latest work takes that a step further by showing that dengue infection occurs when the virus binds to a type of sugar molecule, heparan sulfate, found on the surface of the target cell. It's questionable whether Suramin ultimately will be used to treat dengue infections because of concerns about potential toxicity, Marks says, and as the research is refined other drugs may ultimately prove more effective. Theirs, however, was the first demonstration that a pharmaceutical can effectively prevent infection by dengue virus, and it has provided a basis for screening related compounds that may inhibit the virus safely and effectively. Symptoms include internal bleeding, circulatory failure, coma and shock. Dengue virus is one of a large family of viruses, called flaviviruses, many of which cause serious human disease, including yellow fever and hepatitis C. Most flaviviruses have similar envelope proteins, and it is believed that they share the same basic mechanism for binding to cells.
Nobody is really sure.
However, the major concern is with the small but growing number of cases of locally acquired infection in Texas. There had not been any locally acquired dengue within the continental United States for a decade when the first recent case was reported in 1995. There have now been approximately 30. These were labor-intensive paramilitary programs aimed at killing mosquito larvae and eliminating sites of stagnant water accumulation close to human habitats that supported mosquito growth. The success of these programs led to complacency, and that, combined with a change in the political climate within the US, led to severe curtailment of funding and resulted in the control programs' being dismantled.