Dengue

Abstract

Dengue is an infectious disease and represents a major public health problem in tropical and subtropical countries with crescent concern due the severe illness and deaths worldwide. Indeed, the WHO estimates an annual occurrence of approximately 392 million infections in more than 100 countries of four of the five continents, where disease is endemic. Among these, around 90 million are symptomatic infections that result in almost half million hospitalization and 50,000 deaths. Dengue is, presently, the leading widespread mosquito-borne disease in the world affecting or placing under risk almost half of the world population (~3 billion people) living in the endemic areas, especially Latin America and Asia-Pacific regions, but the absence of information in Africa is of concern. Epidemics of dengue disease in general are accompanied by patient’s suffering, massive economic losses due the combat of the vectors and hospitalization, and strained health services, as consequence of the increase by at least 30-fold in the incidence of disease in the last five decades. It is remarkable that the increase in air travel in the world has facilitated the disease spread globally. Therefore, a further global strategy for controlling and preventing dengue is necessary and should be jointly driven by WHO and its agencies, and the development of vaccines is expected to help on this objective. Only a global effort including the community will allow diminishing the burden of dengue in the world.