[Dengue Fever].

Abstract

Dengue fever is a painful, debilitating, arthropod-borne disease. In recent years, dengue endemic regions have markedly expanded in the tropics, South-east Asia, and the Americas. Epidemics have also been re- ported in subtropical regions of East Asia and Europe. Factors including an increase in the frequency of international travel and period of stay, increase in population density, and global warming, are hypothesized to be associated with the rapid spread of dengue. Approximately 4 billion people are estimated to be infected with the virus each year'). However, there are no effective therapeutics nor clinically approved vaccine for dengue in the region. In 2014, a local dengue outbreak involving 162 cases occurred in Japan2). With the increasing annual numbers of imported dengue cases, there is a need to strengthen and improve the capacity for disease control and prevention. [Review].