Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever: A Global Challenge

www.ijmm.orgDengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) is back once again.Prior to 1970 only nine countries had experienced DHF epidemics.The prevalence of dengue has grown dramatically in recent decades.The disease is now endemic in more than 100 countries in Africa, the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific.Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific are most seriously affected.Some 2500 million people -two fifths of the world's populationare now at risk from dengue.WHO currently estimated 50 million cases of dengue infection worldwide every year.During epidemics of dengue, attack rates among susceptibles are 40 to 90%.An estimated 500,000 cases of DHF require hospitalization each year, of whom a very large proportion are children.1,2 The year 2001 witnessed unprecedented global dengue epidemic activity in the American hemisphere, the Pacific islands and continental Asia.During 2002, more than 30 Latin American countries reported over 1,000,000 dengue fever cases with large number of DHF cases.This has been followed by extensive epidemics of DHF in several parts of India during 2003.