Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Global Strategic Preparedness, Readiness and Response Plan (SPRP) to tackle dengue and other Aedes-borne arboviruses. The Plan aims at reducing the burden of disease, suffering and deaths from dengue and other Aedes-borne arboviral diseases such as Zika and chikungunya, by fostering a global coordinated response.  

The Plan outlines priority actions to control transmission and offers recommendations to affected countries across various sectors, including disease surveillance, laboratory activities, vector control, community engagement, clinical management, and research and development, through a whole-of-society and regional approach. 

An estimated four billion people are at risk of infection from arboviruses around the world, and this number is estimated to increase to 5 billion by 2050. Dengue cases have surged across all six WHO regions, and the number of cases has approximately doubled each year since 2021, with over 12.3 million cases as of the end of August this year – almost double the 6.5 million cases reported in all of 2023.