Over the past 50 years, dengue has spread from nine to over a hundred countries, making it the most rapidly spreading vector-borne disease.

The cases have risen from 15,000 per year in the 1960s to 390 million today. Over 40 per cent of the world’s population is at risk from dengue. The overall disease burden varies from region to region, with Asia-Pacific housing 75 per cent of those at risk.

The situation is further amplified due to the high associated costs, which can be twice or even three times as much as the average monthly income of a person.

Yet, dengue continues to have a low profile among policy-makers and donors and does not receive the media attention it deserves. While official development assistance has increased almost two and a half times since 2000, reaching a peak of 128.7 billion US dollars in 2010,3 the financial support for dengue-related projects has remained low, with money being made available mostly for isolated outbreak response. Read more