dengue fever outbreaks dengue fever outbreaks as of 2010, dengue fever is believed to infect 50 to 100 million people worldwide a year with 1/2 million life-threatening infections. it dramatically increased in frequency between 1960 and 2010, by 30 fold. this increase is believed to be due to a combination of urbanization, population growth, increased international travel, and global warming. the geographical distribution is around the equator with 70% of the total 2.5 billion people living in endemic areas from asia and the pacific. many of the infected people during outbreaks are not virally tested, therefore their infections may also be due to chikungunya, a coinfection of both, or even other similar viruses. worldwide dengue distribution, 2006. red: epidemic dengue. blue: aedes aegypti. disability-adjusted life year for dengue fever per million inhabitants in 2012. no data 0-0 1-1 1–45 47–87 92–141 143–330 346–356 367–440 496–37,325 average annual number of df cases and dhf cases reported to who recent outbreaks main articles: 2005 dengue outbreak in singapore, 2006 dengue outbreak in india, 2006 dengue outbreak in pakistan, 2009 bolivian dengue fever epidemic, and 2019 dengue fever epidemic the first recognized dengue epidemics occurred almost simultaneously in asia, africa, and north america in the 1780s, shortly after the identification and naming of the disease in 1779. a pandemic began in southeast asia in the 1950s, and by 1975 dengue haemorrhagic fever (dhf) had become a leading cause of death among children in the region. the first case of dhf was reported in manila around 1953 through 1954. a small child with dengue fever started to bleed uncontrollably. other children then became victims to the new symptom. epidemic dengue has become more common since the 1980s. by the late 1990s, dengue was the most important mosquito-borne disease affecting humans after malaria, with around 40 million cases of dengue fever and several hundred thousand cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever each year. significant outbreaks of dengue fever tend to occur every five or six months. the cyclical rise and fall in numbers of dengue cases is thought to be the result of seasonal cycles interacting with a short-lived cross-immunity for all four strains in people who have had dengue. when the cross-immunity wears off the population is more susceptible to transmission whenever the next seasonal peak occurs. thus over time there remain large numbers of susceptible people in affected populations despite previous outbreaks due to the four different serotypes of dengue virus and the presence of unexposed individuals from childbirth or immigration. there is significant evidence, originally suggested by s.b. halstead in the 1970s, that dengue hemorrhagic fever is more likely to occur in people who have secondary infections by another one of dengue fever's four serotypes. one model to explain this process is known as antibody-dependent enhancement (ade), which allows for increased uptake and virion replication during a secondary infection with a different strain. through an immunological phenomenon, known as original antigenic sin, the immune system is not able to adequately respond to the stronger infection, and the secondary infection becomes far more serious. reported cases of dengue are an under-representation of all cases when accounting for subclinical cases and cases where the patient did receive medical treatment. there was a serious outbreak in rio de janeiro during the summer of 2002 with 288,245 reported cases. on march 20, 2008, the secretary of health of the state of rio de janeiro, sérgio côrtes, announced that 23,555 cases of dengue, including 30 deaths, had been recorded in the state in less than three months. côrtes said, "i am treating this as an epidemic because the number of cases is extremely high." federal minister of health, josé gomes temporão also announced that he was forming a panel to respond to the situation. cesar maia, mayor of the city of rio de janeiro, denied that there was serious cause for concern, saying that the incidence of cases was in fact declining from a peak at the beginning of february. by april 3, 2008, the number of cases reported rose to 55,000 in singapore, the worst dengue outbreak is currently occurring. by 2 october 2020, there were more than 33,500 confirmed cases, and at least 29 deaths. this figure has exceeded the numbers of singapore's previously worst dengue fever outbreak. dengue fever occurs widely in the tropics, including the southern united states, northern argentina, northern australia, bangladesh, barbados, bolivia, belize, brazil, cambodia, colombia, costa rica, cuba, dominican republic, french polynesia, guadeloupe, el salvador, grenada, guatemala, guyana, haiti, honduras, india, indonesia, jamaica, laos, malaysia, melanesia, mexico, micronesia, nicaragua, pakistan, panama, paraguay, the philippines, puerto rico, samoa, western saudi arabia, singapore, sri lanka, suriname, taiwan, thailand, trinidad and tobago, venezuela and vietnam, and increasingly in southern china. a 2010 outbreak in puerto rico resulted in 5382 confirmed infections and 20 deaths. nearby guadeloupe and martinique, in the french caribbean, were affected as well: over 40000 clinical cases in each island required medical assistance (the outbreak peaked in august 2010 and was practically over by october). a considerable number of cases were recorded in the french/dutch island of st.martin/sint marteen as well, where dengue is endemic. there was an outbreak in pakistan with more than 5000 confirmed infections and a mortality rate of 31. the 2009 and 2010 dengue outbreaks in key west florida are similar to the 2005 texas (25 cases) and 2001 hawaii (122 cases) outbreaks, which were locally sustained on american soil and not a result of travelers returning from endemic areas. american visitors to and visitors from dengue-endemic regions will continue to present a potential pathway for the dengue virus to enter the united states and infect populations that have not been exposed to the virus for several decades. the health risks and rapidly escalating costs to the united states of unmonitored, unvaccinated and disease carrying travelers, legal and illegal, has been recently considered. an outbreak of dengue fever was declared in cairns, located in the tropical north of queensland, australia on 1 december 2008. as of 3 march 2009 there were 503 confirmed cases of dengue fever, in a residential population of 152,137. outbreaks were subsequently declared the neighbouring cities and towns of townsville (outbreak declared 5 january 2009), port douglas (6 february 2009), yarrabah (19 february 2009), injinoo (24 february 2009), innisfail (27 february 2009) and rockhampton (10 march 2009). there have been occurrences of dengue types one, two, three, and four in the region. on march 4, 2009, queensland health had confirmed an elderly woman had died from dengue fever in cairns, in the first fatality since the epidemic began last year. the statement said that although the woman had other health problems, she tested positive for dengue and the disease probably contributed to her death. an epidemic broke out in bolivia in early 2009, in which 18 people died and 31,000 were infected. in 2009, in argentina, a dengue outbreak was declared the northern provinces of chaco, catamarca, salta, jujuy, and corrientes, with over 9673 cases reported as of april 11, 2009 by the health ministry. some travelers from the affected zones have spread the fever as far south as buenos aires. major efforts to control the epidemic in argentina are focused on preventing its vector (the aedes mosquitoes) from reproducing. this is addressed by asking people to dry out all possible water reservoirs from where mosquitoes could proliferate (which is, in other countries, known as "descacharrado"). there were information campaigns concerning prevention of the dengue fever; and the government is fumigating with insecticide in order to control the mosquito population. one of the south asian countries still suffering highly from this problem is sri lanka. an outbreak caused by serotype denv-1 occurred in 2002 on easter island. subsequent outbreaks occurred in 2006–2007 and 2008, 2009 and 2011 with decreasing magnitude over time. the male:female ratio in reported cases was approximately 1:1 and the average age at infection was 31.38 ± 18.37 in both sexes. 2010 in many undeveloped regions, "authorities do not have adequate facilities to detect dengue cases." notably, in the philippines where patients seek herbal medication in lieu of hospitals for treating dengue, death rates as evidenced below are statistically far greater than other affected areas. as many cases go unreported, higher statistics here do not necessarily indicate a larger outbreak. in 2010, latin america alone reported a sum of 1.5 million cases. country region confirmed cases(year: 2010) suspected cases(year: 2010) reported deaths(year: 2010) compared with previous year figures as of** world (sum of all regions)1,785,059n.a.2,398 brazil–1,011,548–656406,269mid oct colombia–121,600–161–sep 24 indonesia––n/an/a155,000 and 1386 deathsno date philippines–119,789–72449,319 (up 140%)nov 17 venezuela–124,931––65,869all of 2010 thailand–108,863–131up 134.7% on sep 27nov 20 vietnam–~80,000–59105,370 (whole year)sep honduras–69,745–8113,351 (whole year)december 2010 malaysia–45,037–13339,537dec 17 sri lanka–26,824–192mid jul costa rica–21,000–n/a3,326end aug laos–14,659–397,214(whole year)aug 28 puerto rico–13,990–22–sep 18 paraguay–13,6786138n/an/asep 30 mexico–12,240–2015,032week 32 (sep) indonesiabali10,230–29n/ajan–oct dominican republic–8,839–413,000sep 3 el salvador–6,45815,0681n/aweek 28 indiadelhi5,837–81,153nov 9 pakistan–7,000+–35–nov 22 indonesianorth sumatra5,805–n/a4,643 (whole year)sep indonesiasemarang5,284–433,883oct 12 singapore–5,103–414,497dec 11 cambodia–3,771–102,355to july saudi arabiajeddah2219–n/adec 16 francemartinique6444197017nov 22 franceguadeloupe418440005nov 22 guatemala–1,92511,800251 sep indonesiayogyakarta1123––688 (whole year)sep 26 taiwan–1211–21052nov 1 trinidad and tobago–1,200–4n/aend aug indiauttar pradesh496–8oct 20 nepalchitwan280–––oct 17, 2010 united states–198 (24-2010fl,27-2009fl,25-2005tx,122-2001hi) 2 (2010, suspected)cases down 11% from 2009aug 3, 2010 francemayotte75–n/asep 1 australiaqueensland1301nov 3, 2010 2011