Academics

Dengue Infection: Burden in India

March 07, 2023
Kateryna Malkina

Dengue is a rapidly expanding mosquito-borne virus that can be found in tropical and subtropical climates (Rodríguez-Barraquer et al., 2015). Across a human population, it is endemic in more than 100 countries and 400 million people are infected with it annually. Around 100 million shows symptoms and 40 thousand dies from severe dengue due to internal bleeding and organ damage (CDC, 2021a). There are four serotypes that cause the dengue disease – DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, and DENV-4. They are spread by two vector species — mosquitos Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus — which survive well in both tropic and cooler regions (15-320C) (Reinhold et al, 2018). While mild symptoms of dengue cause fever, aches, and rash, the severe form of dengue — Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) — can cause death within a few hours and requires hospital care (CDC, 2021a). Since dengue can be induced by four genetically related viruses, a single person does not develop immunity to all at once and is at risk of getting sick as many as four times in their lifetime. Although a new dengue vaccine has recently become available on the U.S. territories (CDC 2021b), there has not yet been developed a long-lasting, successful, and widely accessible vaccine (Rodríguez-Barraquer et al., 2015). The disease requires urgent and special attention to reduce high infection rates across the world. 

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