The Global Dengue Observatory now allows monthly tracking of dengue trends across 88 countries. The tool was developed by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and uses data from the World Health Organization and LSHTM’s OpenDengue Project to give a global view of dengue activity.
Dengue is endemic in more than 100 countries and about half the world’s population is at risk, with Latin America the most affected region. A major problem for surveillance is reporting delay: local cases must be identified, reported to national authorities and then shared internationally, a process that can take days or months.
To reduce these gaps, researchers built algorithms that adjust for reporting delays and missing data; these corrections currently apply to Latin America. The observatory tracks countries meeting a threshold of at least five cases per month over the past five seasons and therefore excludes places with low case numbers.
By the end of February the platform had recorded 314,783 cumulative cases worldwide, including 235,075 in South America. Experts say harmonised, near real-time monitoring can help anticipate outbreaks and guide control measures.
Difficult words
- observatory — A system that watches and reports disease dataGlobal Dengue Observatory
- endemic — Present and regularly found in a region
- surveillance — Careful watching and collecting health information
- reporting delay — Time between cases and official reports
- algorithm — A set of rules for data processingalgorithms
- adjust — Change data to correct known errors
- cumulative — Total amount added up over time
- threshold — A limit used to decide inclusion
- harmonise — Made consistent across different sources or placesharmonised
- anticipate — Expect and prepare for something before it happens
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Discussion questions
- How could near real-time monitoring help your country or local community?
- Why is reporting delay a problem for controlling disease outbreaks?
- What other data or features would you like the observatory to include, and why?
