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Infectious diseases account for the larger part of all deaths in the tropical areas of the world and disease, like poverty, is not distributed uniformly among people and countries. Nearly all of these deaths occur in children under the age of five. Many of these infectious diseases that profoundly impact the health of people living in the tropics are frequently referred to as
arboviral diseases. Arboviruses are enveloped, RNA-containing viruses that encompass, among others, the Flaviviruses (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus) that is pathogenic in humans and includes dengue.
Conditions that contribute to the risk for becoming infected with an arboviral disease agent include biological factors related to population density, rural vs. urban living, nutritional status, climate and other environmental factors, as well as socioeconomic circumstances. The increased disease incidence, combined with increased frequency of epidemic dengue caused by multiple virus serotypes, has increased the risk of epidemic dengue hemorrhagic fever, one of the leading causes of hospitalization and death among children in Southeast-Asia. It has also been estimated that 1 billion people in the world today lack access to adequate sanitation services and safe drinking water. Such poverty in the developing world has obvious global implications.
Dengue, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS) are prevalent in over 100 countries and territories and threaten the health of more than 2.5 billion people, living in urban and rural areas of tropical and subtropical regions. Annual incidence is estimated to be in the tens of millions, with an estimated 500,000 hospitalized cases of DHF/DSS, of whom the greater part are children under the age of 15 years. The average mortality rate is 5%, with some 24,000 deaths each year.
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