Courtesy of The Pest Ranger
WILKES-BARRE, Penn. — “It came on slowly,” said The Pest Rangers President Jeff King. “Each hour I was falling apart. [I had a} headache, I felt the fever coming on, and I could not stand still. I just kept moving around, restlessly, because it was starting to hit me.”
What started on a Tuesday morning as flu-like symptoms for King— who at the time was attending the Pennsylvania Pest Management Association — quickly turned into a hospital visit with several days of a dangerously high fever and other physical symptoms.
Medical professionals diagnosed King and informed him he was stricken with dengue fever after traveling abroad from St. Kitts in the West Indies.
“It was the first time in the hospital system that they have diagnosed someone with dengue fever,” King said. “They said I would deal with up to seven days of constant fever, headaches, cough and body aches. They were not lying. It was everything they said it was.”
Dengue virus is transmitted by infected mosquitoes — Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus — and about 25 percent of infected individuals become symptomatic, according to a Texas Department of State Health Services report from November 2024.
Most dengue virus cases in the U.S. have been linked to travel to places where the virus is endemic, including the South Pacific, Asia, the Caribbean, South and Central America, and Africa, the report stated.
King’s flu-like symptoms lasted for seven days, his persistent cough for four weeks and nearly two months later, he is still managing joint pain in his knees, hips and feet, he said.
“I have been taking over-the-counter pain medicine to help with the joint pain,” King said. “I've added mosquito repellent to my travel bag and will be more aware of my activities moving forward.”
King now urges his loved ones, customers and fellow PMPs to understand the true threats of vector-borne illness, such as dengue fever, Zika, chikungunya, or the West Nile virus.
“It's real and can happen to you,” King said. “Be proactive and educate yourself and others. Our services have a whole new meaning now.”