Since its discovery in the 1950s, dengue fever has continuously spread and is now prevalent in over 128 countries across regions such as Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific, the Americas, and Africa. It is estimated that around 390 million cases occur each year, with the number of infections increasing by up to 30 times over the past 50 years.
The first recorded instance of a potential dengue case can be found in a Chinese medical encyclopedia from the Jin Dynasty (266–420 AD) that mentions “water poison” associated with flying insects.
About 2,000 years ago in the Nile region of Egypt, humans passed down tales of a deadly pathogen confined to a specific mosquito species that had found a way to thrive in a new host: humans.
Descriptions of epidemics appeared in the 17th century, but the most reasonable early reports of dengue outbreaks occurred from 1779 to 1780, when an epidemic swept through Asia, Africa, and North America. From that time until 1940, dengue fever outbreaks were recorded infrequently. The first confirmed case report was from 1789 by Benjamin Rush (USA), who coined the term “breakbone fever” to describe the illness due to the common symptoms of muscle and joint pain.
Rash is a typical sign when infected with dengue fever.
The causative virus and the transmission by mosquitoes were only deciphered in the 20th century. The socio-economic impacts of World War II increased the global spread of this disease.
In 1906, the transmission by Aedes mosquitoes was confirmed, and by 1907, dengue fever was established as the second disease (after yellow fever) proven to be caused by a virus. Further investigations by John Burton Cleland (Australia) and Joseph Franklin Siler (USA) completed the fundamental understanding of dengue transmission.
The marked spread of dengue fever during and after World War II is attributed to ecosystem disruption. This also led to the emergence of several different serotypes of the disease in new areas, causing alarming outbreaks of dengue fever.
This disease was assessed as serious when it first appeared in the Philippines in 1953. The mosquito-borne viral disease became a leading medical burden for the country at that time.
As of 2019, the Philippines continued to face severe outbreaks of dengue fever.
Since then, dengue cases have continued to be reported in Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. Approximately 390 million people are infected each year, with around half a million requiring hospitalization and about 40,000 fatalities resulting from this disease.
In the 1970s, it became a leading cause of death among children and began appearing in the Pacific and the Americas.
Dengue fever and Dengue Shock Syndrome were first recorded in Central and South America in 1981, caused by DENV-2, which was transmitted by individuals previously infected with DENV-1 a few years prior.
On December 9, 2015, the Ministry of Health of Mexico approved the use of a dengue vaccine. This made Mexico the first country in the world to officially circulate the dengue vaccine. On May 1, 2019, the Dengvaxia vaccine for dengue fever was approved by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). This vaccine can prevent dengue fever caused by all four serotypes.
