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Dengue and arboviruses
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Dengue
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Pathogen / agent: Dengue virus
Transmission: Aedes mosquitoes
Reservoir / vector: Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes drive transmission.
Incubation: Usually 4 to 10 days after an infectious mosquito bite.
Severity: Most illness is self-limited, but severe dengue can decompensate quickly.
Diagnostics: PCR or antigen testing early, serology later, plus attention to exposure geography.
Treatment: Supportive care with careful fluid management.
Prevention: Mosquito control, bite avoidance, and vaccine policy where appropriate.
Vaccine / prevention status: Vaccines exist in a limited and policy-contingent way; most outbreak control still depends on vector ecology and clinical recognition.
Symptoms And Clinical Pattern
- Fever, headache, retro-orbital pain, and myalgias.
- Rash and leukopenia are common.
- A subset progress to severe dengue with plasma leakage or bleeding.
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Current Story Files
Why Reporters Care
Why this keeps becoming news: Dengue is now one of the best climate-and-city disease stories on earth because mosquito range, urban crowding, and health-system stress all show up in it.
What journalists often get wrong: Coverage frequently treats dengue as a generic tropical fever and underplays serotype history, hospitalization pressure, and the difference between routine seasonal burden and exceptional surge.
- Cases, severe dengue, hospitalizations, and deaths.
- Serotype shifts, if reported, because they can change severity expectations.
- Urban mosquito control failure and the pace of geographic expansion.
Last Major Outbreak On File
Unprecedented global 2024 surge | Global, especially the Americas | 2024
WHO's 2024 update recorded 14,434,584 dengue cases worldwide, including 11,201 deaths, with more than 90% of reported cases coming from the Region of the Americas.
Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record (2025-12-26 publication covering 2024)
Desk Notes And Historical Signals
Desk note: This belongs near the top of any global outbreak desk because climate, vector range and urban vulnerability all keep widening the playing field.
Research caveats: Reported case totals can surge when testing changes, and severity comparisons across countries are often not apples to apples.
- Brazil alone reported more than 10 million cases in the cited WHO 2024 update.