390 Million People Infected with Dengue Worldwide: Study

Dengue infects some 390 million people each year, about three times more than the current estimates made by the World Health Organization, according to a new study.

There is currently no cure or vaccine for dengue fever, and people infected by it can have mild to severe infection. Although most people recover from a mild infection for the first time, the subsequent infection can be particularly severe and life-threatening. The disease is also called as "breakbone" fever due to the aches that it can cause.

The disease is caused by any one of the four dengue viruses that are transmitted by the bite of an infected female Aedes mosquito. According to the WHO, the disease has dramatically increased in the last few decades, with about half of the world's population at risk for the disease.

"Dengue is one of the few infectious diseases increasing its global spread and the number of cases annually," says Jeremy Farrar, a clinician and infectious disease specialist at the University of Oxford Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Science reports.

The present study was based on data obtained from more than 8,000 reports of dengue and new evidence for newer risk factors for the disease, like increased urbanization. Researchers found that in 2010 alone, dengue was the reason behind 96 million people visiting clinics, with another 290 million people having asymptomatic infections.

The study is published in the journal Nature.

Last year, an experimental vaccine made by Sanofi failed to get good results in a mid-stage clinical trial in Thailand, thus quashing the hopes for a dengue vaccine that could save millions of lives in the tropical regions, reports Reuters Health.

The present study also reports that Asia has about 70 percent of all dengue cases, with India alone contributing to 34 percent of them. Brazil and Mexico in the Americas contribute to some 14 percent of dengue cases in the world.