Travelers to Caribbean need precautions

ATLANTA, June 3 (UPI) -- U.S. vacationers, missionaries and groups providing humanitarian services traveling to the Caribbean need pre-travel medical advice, health officials say.

The Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released Thursday said a group of U.S. missionaries became ill with dengue fever after traveling to the Dominican Republic for about one week.

Federal health officials said interviews with the ill travelers indicate their awareness of dengue fever and ways to prevent it was limited, the report says.

The travelers did not seek pre-travel medical advice.

"Those traveling to tropical and sub-tropical counties, should seek medical advice about dengue and other travel-related risks, and they need to increase their use of prevention measures such as mosquito repellents, protective clothing and appropriate insecticides to avoid mosquito bites," the report says. "Importantly, travelers who return ill with dengue also present an ongoing risk for reintroduction of dengue virus to the U.S. mainland."