People can prevent mosquito bites by wearing clothing that fully covers the skin, using mosquito netting while resting, and/or the application of insect repellent (DEET being the most effective). While these measures can be an effective means of reducing an individuals risk of exposure, they do little in terms of mitigating the frequency of outbreaks, which appear to be on the rise in some areas, probably due to urbanization increasing the habitat of A. aegypti. The range of the disease also appears to be expanding possibly due to climate change. Vaccine
In 2016 a partially effective vaccine for dengue fever became commercially available in the Philippines and Indonesia. It has been approved for use by Mexico, Brazil, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Singapore, Paraguay, much of Europe, and the United States. The vaccine is only recommended in individuals who have had a prior dengue infection or in populations where most (>80%) of people have been infected by age 9. In those who have not had a prior infection there is evidence it may worsen subsequent infections. For this reason Prescrire does not see it as suitable for wide scale immunization, even in areas where the disease is common.The vaccine is produced by Sanofi and goes by the brand name Dengvaxia. It is based on a weakened combination of the yellow fever virus and each of the four dengue serotypes. Studies of the vaccine found it was 66% effective and prevented more than 80 to 90% of severe cases. This is less than wished for by some.
This increase is believed to be due to a combination of urbanization, population growth, increased international travel, and global warming. The geographical distribution is around the equator. Of the 2.5 billion people living in areas where it is common 70% are from the WHO Southeast Asia Region and Western Pacific Region. An infection with dengue is second only to malaria as a diagnosed cause of fever among travelers returning from the developing world. It is the most common viral disease transmitted by arthropods, and has a disease burden estimated at 1,600 disability-adjusted life years per million population. The World Health Organization counts dengue as one of seventeen neglected tropical diseases.Like most arboviruses, dengue virus is maintained in nature in cycles that involve preferred blood-sucking vectors and vertebrate hosts. The viruses are maintained in the forests of Southeast Asia and Africa by transmission from female Aedes mosquitos—of species other than A. aegypti—to their offspring and to lower primates. In towns and cities, the virus is primarily transmitted by the highly domesticated A. aegypti. In rural settings the virus is transmitted to humans by A. aegypti and other species of Aedes such as A. albopictus. Both these species had expanding ranges in the second half of the 20th century. In all settings the infected lower primates or humans greatly increase the number of circulating dengue viruses, in a process called amplification. One projection estimates that climate change, urbanization, and other factors could result in more than 6 billion people at risk of dengue infection by 2080.