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Nature Medicine 10, 129 - 130 (2004)
doi:10.1038/nm0204-129

Cities spawn epidemic dengue viruses

Duane J Gubler1

  1. Duane J. Gubler is at the Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Leahi Hospital, 3675 Kilauea Avenue, Honolulu, Hawaii 96816, USA. e-mail: djg2@cdc.gov


Major countrywide and regional epidemics of dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever occur in Southeast Asia every three to five years. A model examining the spread of epidemic dengue in Thailand helps explain why such patterns occur.


Descriptions of illness clinically compatible with dengue fever date back almost 400 years1. In centuries past, epidemics or regional pandemics of dengue fever occurred every 10–40 years in tropical regions of the world.

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