Historical background:

The earliest known documentation of dengue fever–like illness was in the Chinese
Encyclopedia of Symptoms during the Chin Dynasty (CE 265-420). The illness was
called "the water poison" and was associated with flying insects near water.
Earliest recorded outbreaks
Outbreaks of febrile illnesses compatible with dengue fever have been recorded
throughout history, with the first epidemic described in 1635 in the West Indies.
In 1779-1780, the first confirmed, reported outbreak of dengue fever occurred almost
simultaneously in Asia, North America, and Africa. In 1789, the American physician
Benjamin Rush published an account of a probable dengue fever epidemic that had
occurred in Philadelphia in 1780. Rush coined the term breakbone fever to describe the
intense symptoms reported by one of his patients.
A denguelike epidemic in East Africa in the early 1820s was called, in Swahili, ki denga
pepo ("it is a sudden overtaking by a spirit"). The English version of this term, “Dandy
fever,” was applied to an 1827-28 Caribbean outbreak, and in the Spanish Caribbean
colonies, that term was altered to “dengue.”
Increased distribution after World War II
Probable outbreaks of dengue fever occurred sporadically every 10-30 years until after
World War II. The socioeconomic disruptions caused by World War II resulted in
increased worldwide spread of dengue viruses and capable vectors. The first epidemic
of dengue hemorrhagic fever in the modern era was described in Manila in 1953. After
that, outbreaks of dengue fever became more common.
A pattern developed in which dengue fever epidemics occurred with increasing
frequency and were associated with occasional dengue hemorrhagic fever cases.
Subsequently, dengue hemorrhagic fever epidemics occurred every few years.
Eventually, dengue hemorrhagic fever epidemics occurred yearly, with major outbreaks
occurring approximately every 3 years. This pattern has repeated itself as dengue fever
has spread to new regions.
Although initial epidemics were located in urban areas, increased dengue spread has
involved suburban and rural locales in Asia and Latin America. The only continents that
do not experience dengue transmission are Europe and Antarctica. In the 1950s, 9
countries reported dengue outbreaks; currently, the geographic distribution includes
more than 100 countries worldwide. Several of these countries had not previously
reported dengue, and many had not reported dengue in 20 years.
Dengue transmission spread from Southeast Asia into surrounding subtropical and
tropical Asian countries, southern China and southern Taiwan, the Indian subcontinent
and Sri Lanka, and down the island nations of Malaysia, the Philippines, New Guinea,
northeastern Australia, and several Pacific islands, including Tahiti, Palau, Tonga, and
the Cook Islands. Hyperendemic transmission is reported in Vietnam, Thailand,
Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Dengue continues to extend
its range.
In the Americas, dengue epidemics were rare post war because Aedesmosquitoes had
been eradicated from most of the region through coordinated vector-control efforts.
Systematic spraying was halted in the early 1970s because of environmental concerns.
By the 1990s, A aegypti mosquitoes repopulated most of the countries in which they
had been eliminated.
DENV-1 and DENV-2
Serotype 1 dengue (DENV-1) was introduced into a largely susceptible population in
Cuba in 1977. Serosurveys indicated that more than 44% of the population was
infected, with only mild disease reported. The first dengue hemorrhagic fever epidemic
in the Americas occurred in Cuba in 1981 and involved serotype 2 dengue (DENV-2),
with hundreds of thousands of cases of dengue in both children and adults, 24,000
cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever, 10,000 cases of dengue shock syndrome, and 158
reported deaths.
In 1997, Asian genotype DENV-2 was reintroduced, and dengue shock syndrome and
dengue hemorrhagic fever were seen only in adults who had previously been infected
with DENV-1 in 1977. Disease and case-fatality rates were higher in those who had
been infected with DENV-2 20 years after their initial DENV-1 infection than those who
were infected 4 years apart.
Data from other countries supports the finding that the severity of secondary dengue
infections appears to intensify with longer intervals between infections. [7,8] Since then,
dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever cases have progressively increased.
United States
In 1986, the first clearly identified local transmission of dengue in the United States
occurred in Texas. Carriers of the virus were believed to have crossed the border from
Mexico; the local vector population was then infected. Since then, seasonal
autochthonous infection has been reported in both Texas and Hawaii.
In 2001-2002, Hawaii experienced its first outbreak of dengue since World War II
ended. The outbreak involved 2 variants of DENV-1 that were transmitted by A
albopictus. Predominantly affecting young adults and adults, 122 cases of dengue fever
spread slowly on Maui, Oahu, and Kauai. The epidemic was traced to viremic visitors
from Tahiti, which was then experiencing a severe outbreak of the infection.
Two competent vectors, A aegypti and A albopictus, are currently seasonally abundant
in some areas of the southwestern and southeastern United States, including Texas,
Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and mid to south
Florida. A aegypti has also been reported sporadically in portions of North Carolina,
South Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Maryland, and New Jersey. The range of A
albopictus extends almost as far north as the Great Lakes.
Europe
Dengue fever does not naturally occur in the European Union and in continental Europe
because these areas do not have an appropriate vector population to allow further
spread of dengue from viremic patients returning from other countries. However,
dengue does occur in several overseas territories of European Union members. In
recent decades, reports of dengue infections in long-term expatriates, aid workers,
military personnel, immigrants, and travelers returning from the tropics and subtropics
have been increasing.
Factors believed to be responsible for the spread of dengue include the following:
 Explosive population growth
 Unplanned urban overpopulation with inadequate public health systems
 Poor control of standing water and vectors
  Viral evolution
 Increased international recreational, business, and military travel to endemic areas
All of these factors must be addressed to control the spread of dengue and other
mosquito-borne infections. Unplanned urbanization is believed to have had the largest
impact on disease amplification in individual countries, whereas travel is believed to
have had the largest impact on global spread.
Travel surveillance
Over the past decade, the GeoSentinel Network of Travel Medicine providers has
demonstrated that dengue has become more frequently diagnosed than malaria in
travelers returning from tropical areas other than Africa. Such sentinel travel
surveillance can augment global and national public health surveillance. More recent
studies have not supported an earlier suggestion that climate change is also directly
responsible for increased transmission.