Cited by 10,037Mosquito-borne diseases and controlDengue and Mosquito Control ResearchClimate Change and Health Impacts

The global distribution and burden of dengue

Open access
Bhatt, Samir, Gething, Peter W., Brady, Oliver J., Messina, Jane P., Farlow, Andrew W., Moyes, Catherine L., Drake, John M., Brownstein, John S. +10 more·2013·Nature

Abstract

Dengue is a systemic viral infection transmitted between humans by Aedes mosquitoes. For some patients, dengue is a life-threatening illness. There are currently no licensed vaccines or specific therapeutics, and substantial vector control efforts have not stopped its rapid emergence and global spread. The contemporary worldwide distribution of the risk of dengue virus infection and its public health burden are poorly known. Here we undertake an exhaustive assembly of known records of dengue occurrence worldwide, and use a formal modelling framework to map the global distribution of dengue risk. We then pair the resulting risk map with detailed longitudinal information from dengue cohort studies and population surfaces to infer the public health burden of dengue in 2010. We predict dengue to be ubiquitous throughout the tropics, with local spatial variations in risk influenced strongly by rainfall, temperature and the degree of urbanization. Using cartographic approaches, we estimate there to be 390 million (95% credible interval 284-528) dengue infections per year, of which 96 million (67-136) manifest apparently (any level of disease severity). This infection total is more than three times the dengue burden estimate of the World Health Organization. Stratification of our estimates by country allows comparison with national dengue reporting, after taking into account the probability of an apparent infection being formally reported. The most notable differences are discussed. These new risk maps and infection estimates provide novel insights into the global, regional and national public health burden imposed by dengue. We anticipate that they will provide a starting point for a wider discussion about the global impact of this disease and will help to guide improvements in disease control strategies using vaccine, drug and vector control methods, and in their economic evaluation.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/nature12060

Cites

52 of 52 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • An estimated 70% of dengue virus infections are thought to occur in Asia.

    “An estimated 70% of dengue virus infections are thought to occur in Asia. (2)”

    From Epidemiology of dengue reported in the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region, 2013–2019 (2023) · cites this paper as [2]

    The paper states that Asia bore 70% of the estimated 96 million *apparent* dengue infections globally in 2010 (section labelled Abstract; page unavailable). The citing sentence omits both the apparent-infection qualifier and the year, so the passage does not establish that 70% of all dengue virus infections occur in Asia. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • There is likely to be underreporting and, thus, an underestimation of the true regional burden of dengue in terms of the number of cases, case-fatality ratios and incidence.

    “As a result of differences in case definitions and other factors, there is likely to be underreporting and, thus, an underestimation of the true regional burden in terms of the number of cases, CFRs and incidence. (1, 2)”

    From Epidemiology of dengue reported in the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region, 2013–2019 (2023) · cites this paper as [2]

    The Abstract says traditional surveillance captures a narrower range of dengue infections and identifies care-seeking, misdiagnosis and reporting failures as sources of undercounting. The Methods section compares estimated incidence with cases reported to WHO. Neither passage establishes that underreporting leads to underestimated case-fatality ratios. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Sharing information and data about dengue helps countries and areas better understand transmission patterns and supports the implementation of dengue prevention and control measures.

    “Sharing information and data about dengue helps countries and areas better understand transmission patterns and supports the implementation of dengue prevention and control measures. (2)”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [1]Simmons CP Farrar JJ van Vinh Chau N Wills B Dengue N. Engl. J. Med 2012 366 1423 1432 22494122
  2. [2]W.H.O Dengue: guidelines for diagnosis, treatment, prevention and control. WHO/HTM/NTD/DEN/2009.1 2009 World Health Organization 23762963
  3. [17]Rodhain F La situation de la dengue dans le monde Bull Soc Pathol Exot 1996 89 87 90 8924780

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Bhatt, S., Gething, P. W., Brady, O. J., Messina, J. P., Farlow, A. W., Moyes, C. L., Drake, J. M., Brownstein, J. S., Hoen, A. G., Sankoh, O., Myers, M. F., George, D. B., Jaenisch, T., Wint, G. R. W., Simmons, C. P., Scott, T. W., Farrar, J. J., & Hay, S. I.
Affiliations
  • University of Oxford (GB)
  • University of Georgia (US)
  • Boston Children's Hospital (US)
  • Dartmouth College (US)
  • University of the Witwatersrand (ZA)
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
  • University Hospital Heidelberg (DE)
  • Churchill Hospital (GB)
  • National University of Singapore (SG)
Corresponding author
Hay, Simon I.
Venue
Nature
Published
2013-04
Volume
496
Issue
7446
Pages
504-507
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W2131222241
Cited by
10,037
References
52
Citations by year
2026: 615 · 2025: 704 · 2024: 830 · 2023: 846 · 2022: 816 · 2021: 943 · 2020: 946 · 2019: 922 · 2018: 777 · 2017: 724 · 2016: 744 · 2015: 551 · 2014: 467 · 2013: 141 · 2012: 3
FWCI
650.37
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • LSHTM Research Online (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) (acceptedVersion)
  • Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
  • Spiral (Imperial College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Homeland Security
  • Wellcome Trust (089276, 095066, 084368, 097318)
  • European Commission (261504)
  • National Institutes of Health (5r01ai069341-05)
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (1090403)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM083224)
  • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R01-AI069341, R01AI091980)
  • Fogarty International Center
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Mosquito-borne diseases and control
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Dengue and Mosquito Control Research
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Climate Change and Health Impacts
Keywords
dengue, global burden of disease, dengue incidence, dengue risk mapping, Aedes, mosquito-borne viral disease, temperature and precipitation effects, urbanization, dengue prevention, dengue control, tropical and subtropical regions, dengue vaccine
MeSH terms
Dengue, Dengue Virus, Humans, Public Health, Quality Control, Rain, Risk Factors, Temperature, Tropical Climate, Urbanization, Global Health, World Health Organization, Cohort Studies, Incidence, Databases, Factual

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review