Urgent need for a permanent dengue surveillance system in IndiaTI Urgent need for a permanent dengue surveillance system in India

摘要

Dengue is one of the most important mosquito-borne viral diseases in the world, and is endemic in approximately 120 countries. It has been estimated that there are 50–100 million cases of dengue fever and 3.6 billion people are at risk of infection 1 . It is emerging and re-emerging in the tropics and currently poses the most significant arboviral threat to humans. What was once a disease with low attack rates, moderate pathogenicity, and infrequent epidemics has become, in the last two decades, the leading arboviral cause of illness and death in humans 2 . The frequency of dengue outbreaks is increasing and spreading, with Asian countries experiencing such outbreaks every three to five years 3 . Unplanned urban expansion, leading to high densities of humans exposed to anthropophilic mosquito vectors, as well as globalization and travel, have contributed to hyperendemic transmission of all four dengue serotypes throughout the tropics 4,5 .