Dengue virus

Dengue virus (DENV) is the cause of dengue fever. It is a mosquito-borne, single positive-stranded RNA virus of the family Flaviviridae; genus Flavivirus. Four serotypes of the virus have been found, and a reported fifth has yet to be confirmed, all of which can cause the full spectrum of disease. Nevertheless, scientists' understanding of dengue virus may be simplistic as, rather than distinct antigenic groups, a continuum appears to exist. This same study identified 47 strains of dengue virus. Additionally, coinfection with and lack of rapid tests for Zika virus and chikungunya complicate matters in real-world infections.

Dengue virus has increased dramatically within the last 20 years, becoming one of the worst mosquito-borne human pathogens that tropical countries have to deal with. Current estimates indicate that as many as 390 million infections occur each year, and many dengue infections are increasingly understood to be asymptomatic or subclinical.