Dengue Fever: What is it and What is Being Done to Stop it?

Dengue fever is a mosquito borne viral infection that causes a flu-like illness and if not treated, can worsen into severe dengue and become lethal. The female mosquito that transmits Dengue fever is also responsible for spreading Chikungunya disease, yellow fever, and Zika virus (WHO, 2016).  Currently, about one-third of the world’s population is at risk for contracting Dengue Fever. Dengue fever is predominantly found in the tropics and subtropics.

There is no real treatment for Dengue, and until recently, there has been no vaccine, so the main form of prevention is preventing mosquito bites in general. Prevention techniques are displayed in figure 2. Dengue fever is a global health issue, as it is prevalent on every continent. The prevalence can be seen in figure 1. Most recently, the rapid spread of the disease through the Americas has been a major cause for concern as it came after no appearance of Dengue for 16 years. The three most common causes of transmission are 1) poor water, sewage and waste management systems, which increase the population density of the mosquito that carries dengue 2) increased travel by airplane, spreading the disease across continents 3) most countries do not consider dengue to be a crisis, so they do not use the resources needed to eradicate it (Gubler and Clark, 1995).

Earlier this year, the first vaccine for Dengue fever, Dengvaxia,  was manufactured. Due to the increased spread of the disease through the Americas, the vaccine was put through clinical trials and registered in several countries. The Dengue vaccine has been researched since the 1920s, but has only been produced recently due to little knowledge of the disease and its mechanism of action (WHO, 2016).

Figure 1: Prevalence of Dengue Fever

Figure 2: Symptoms and Prevention

Works Cited:

Gubler, D. J., and G. G. Clark. “Dengue/dengue Hemorrhagic Fever: The Emergence of a Global Health Problem.” Emerging Infectious Diseases. Centers for Disease Control, Apr. 1995. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.

“Dengue and Severe Dengue.” World Health Organization. World Health Organization, 2016. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.

“Dengue.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.

“Dengue Fever | NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.” U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2016. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.

Gubler, Duane J. “Epidemic Dengue/dengue Hemorrhagic Fever as a Public Health, Social and Economic Problem in the 21st Century.” Science and Society. Trends in Microbiology, 1 Feb. 2002. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.