Introduction of Dengue
Dengue or dengue-like epidemics were reported throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Americans, southern Europe, North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, Asia and Australia and on various islands in the Indian Ocean, the south and central Pacific and the Carribbean.
It has steadily increased in both incidence and distribution over the past 40 years. Annually, it is estimated that there are 20 million cases of dengue infection, resulting in around 24,000 deaths.