Dengue virus in Sri Lanka: an observational study from 2014-2018

Abstract

Dengue virus is one of major public heath burden in several countries, it is described to be “a fast-emerging pandemic prone viral disease” by the WHO and is one of the most common form of vector borne diseases worldwide. The disease is transmitted through the female Aedes mosquito and most commonly found in tropical countries. A reported 400 million reported dengue cases occur yearly and an estimated 3 billion people could be affected by the disease in the upcoming decade making it a global crisis. The disease is caused by four serotypes of the dengue virus (DENV1-4) making it difficult for the treatment to work on the patients due to its different virulent mechanism. Using the data available from the Ministry of Health, Epidemiology Unit in Sri Lanka the dengue reported cases from 2014 to 2018 are analyzed over the five years to identify the trends and occurrence patterns.