1981 dengue haemorrhagic fever epidemic in Cuba
Epidemia de dengue hemorrágico de 1981 en Cuba
- Date
- 1981 · confidence high
- Place
- Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine, Havana, Cuba
- Credited to
- Pedro Kourí Institute; Gustavo Kourí and María G. Guzmán
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
The 1981 dengue epidemic in Cuba, with over three hundred thousand cases and about 10,000 severe, was the first major outbreak of dengue haemorrhagic fever in the Americas and made it possible to confirm that reinfection with a different serotype (DENV-2 after DENV-1) multiplies the risk of the severe form. It underpinned the secondary-infection hypothesis.
The epidemic occurred between May and October 1981, with about 340,000 reported cases, over 10,000 severe and 158 deaths (101 children); its origin is linked to the introduction of DENV-2 after the 1977 DENV-1 epidemic. There are unproven hypotheses about the origin of the virus.
What it led to
- epidemiological evidence for the secondary-infection hypothesis
- Aedes aegypti surveillance and control programmes in Cuba
- dengue reference centres in the Americas