Travel Safety and Security

With the warmer months coming, and many travelers planning tropical getaways, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are warning consumers about the heightened risk of dengue fever. 

Based on recent reports, cases of dengue fever – which is transmitted through mosquito bites – are on the rise around the world. 

“Globally, dengue cases have increased substantially in the last five years, with the most pronounced increases occurring in the Americas,” the CDC wrote. 

“As of March 6, more than 760,000 dengue cases have been reported in 2025, which is a 15% increase compared to the previous five-year average. Epidemics in the Americas region are expected to increase both travel-associated cases and the possibility of local transmission in the continental United States in areas with competent mosquito vectors. Spring and summer travel in the United States overlaps with the months of increased seasonal dengue activity in many countries.”

Which areas are most affected?

The CDC has identified five states across the U.S. where dengue cases have popped up from local mosquitoes – California, Texas, Florida, Hawaii, and Arizona. 

Additionally, six territories of the U.S. have reported higher numbers of dengue recently, including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. 

Globally, these countries present a high risk of dengue for travelers: 

• Brazil

• Burkina Faso

• Colombia

• Cuba

• Ecuador

• Fiji

• French Polynesia

• Guadeloupe

• Guatemala

• Iran

• Mexico

• Pakistan

• Panama

• Philippines 

• Saint Lucia

• Sudan

What travelers should know

The CDC’s Travel Notice indicates that the dengue fever outbreak is classified as a Level 1 issue, which means travelers should practice the usual precautions. 

At this stage, it isn’t recommended to cancel travel. However, experts are encouraging travelers to use an EPA-registered insect repellent to prevent mosquito bites when traveling or spending extended periods of time outdoors. 

Additionally, it is recommended to sleep in an air-conditioned room or a room with window screens and to cover arms and legs when outdoors. 

Fears of boat collisions with bridges have run high since a container ship hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last year, collapsing the bridge and killing six people.

Now, a study from John Hopkins University shows just how risky these collisions are among the nation's biggest bridges.

“With this investigation we wanted to know if what happened to the Key Bridge was a rare occurrence. Was it an aberration? We found it’s really not,” said Michael Shields, a Johns Hopkins engineer specializing in risk assessment and lead investigator of the National Science Foundation, said in comments with the study.

Some of the nation's busiest bridges will likely suffer a boat collision, at least once, that can cause catastrophic damage or collapse within 20 to 50 years, despite being designed to keep collapses to a less than 1 in 10,000 chance, according to the study, which reviewed 16 years of U.S. Coast Guard data and ship aberrancy rates from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

A large ship colliding with a bridge won't necessarily cause collapse, but Shields said it would almost certaintly cause irreperarable damage.

The frequency of ship traffic and how close to the piers they sail were strong predictors of collisions, the study said.

Lousiana's Huey P. Long Bridge, California's San Francisco-Oakland Bay Brdige and Louisiana's Crescent City Connection, Texas's Beltway 8 Bridge and Louisiana's Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge are likely to be hit with ships within less than 40 years, the study said.

"We want that number to be thousands of years," Shields said. “If one of these massive ships hits a bridge, it’s catastrophic."

The Huey P. Long Bridge had the highest risk, with one collision expected every 17 years.

On the other hand, the study said the John A. Blatnik Bridge in Minnesota and Wisconsin should expect a collision within 634 years.

John Hopkins said some bridges with considerable traffic from large ships didn't make the list because their piers are safely on land, away from the passing ships, including Minnesota’s Deluth Lift Bridge and California's Vincent Thomas Bridge.

To prevent collisions, ship traffic should be kept away from piers and piers shoould be equipped with protections including dolphins and other structures.

Still, Shields said there are limits to the predictions.

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty in predicting the frequency of ship collisions, even with the best data we have,” he said. “But the important point is not whether it will occur every 17 years or every 75 years. It’s that it’s happening way too often.”

The number of pedestrians killed in collisions with vehicles has been steadily increasing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports over 8,000 pedestrians were killed on U.S. roads in 2022. That's about one death every 64 minutes.

There were also an estimated 140,000 emergency department visits of pedestrians treated for non-fatal crash-related injuries in 2022.

New research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) points to a possible reason for the increase. There are more large SUVs and pickup trucks on American roadways. The IIHS study shows that the likelihood of serious injuries increases significantly with both the speed of the vehicle and its height, posing a greater threat to pedestrian safety in the United States compared to Europe.

IIHS researchers analyzed 202 pedestrian crashes involving individuals aged 16 and older, using data from accidents in Michigan, California, New Jersey, and Texas. They developed injury risk curves to illustrate how speed and vehicle height affect crash outcomes. 

The findings indicate that even a small increase in speed can substantially elevate the danger to pedestrians, with taller vehicles exacerbating this risk.

Intensifies the impact

David Harkey, IIHS President, pointed out that the American preference for tall SUVs and pickups intensifies the impact of speed on pedestrian injuries. The study suggests that the standard 25 mph speed limit in U.S. residential areas may be too high for densely populated urban centers, where pedestrian traffic is heavy.

The research focused on the height of the vehicle's front end, as it determines the point of impact on a pedestrian's body, a crucial factor in injury severity. The study found that at 20 mph, pedestrians had a 46% chance of sustaining moderate injuries and an 18% chance of serious injuries. 

These risks increased dramatically at higher speeds, with a 35 mph impact resulting in an 86% chance of moderate injuries and a 67% chance of serious injuries. Fatalities also rose sharply with speed, from a 1% risk at 20 mph to over 80% at 50 mph.

The height factor

Taller vehicles were found to significantly increase the likelihood of both moderate and serious injuries. At the average crash speed of 27 mph, a median-height car had a 60% chance of causing moderate injuries, while a median-height pickup had an 83% chance. 

The study also compared U.S. data with European crash data, finding that American pedestrians are more likely to be injured at all speeds, likely due to the larger size of vehicles in the U.S.

IIHS Senior Statistician Sam Monfort emphasized the real-world consequences of vehicle choices on pedestrian safety, noting that the U.S. vehicle fleet is predominantly composed of SUVs and pickups, unlike Europe's car-dominated fleet. The study calls for a reevaluation of speed limits and vehicle design to enhance pedestrian safety.

While many parents worry about the mental and physical health risks associated with kids’ screen time, a new study conducted by researchers from the Karolinska Institute may make some parents feel better about their kids playing video games. 

According to the findings, kids who spend a lot of time playing video games may also have higher intelligence levels. 

“We didn’t examine the effects of screen behavior on physical activity, sleep, well-being, or school performance, so we can’t say anything about that,” said researcher Torkel Klingberg. “But our results support the claim that screen time generally doesn’t impair children’s cognitive abilities, and that playing video games can actually help boost intelligence. This is consistent with several experimental studies of video-game playing.” 

Positive effects of video games

For the study, the researchers analyzed data from nearly 10,000 children enrolled in the ABCD study in the U.S. At the start of the study, parents answered questions about how often their children were in front of screens using social media, watching TV, and playing video games. The children also completed several different assessments to measure intelligence. The team then followed up with the children over the course of two years to measure changes over time. 

The study showed that the kids involved in the study spent an average of an hour playing video games each day. However, kids who surpassed that were also likely to have higher IQs. Playing video games for an hour or more every day was linked with raising IQ scores by as many as 2.5 points. 

It’s important to note that this same trend wasn’t observed for the other forms of screen time, including watching TV or being on social media. 

While the team plans to do more work in this area to better understand what other influences can affect kids’ intelligence, these findings highlight one way that kids can benefit from playing video games. 

“We’ll now be studying the effects of other environmental factors and how the cognitive effects relate to childhood brain development,” Klingberg said.