Incidence of dengue fever in Israeli travelers 2008-2019

Dengue virus (DENV) is a frequent travel-related infection, but longitudinal data on its incidence is limited. We aimed to study temporal trends of travel-related DENV burden and its geographical sources.

All cases of laboratory-confirmed DENV infection diagnosed at the Central Virology Laboratory of the Israeli Ministry of Health during 2008-2019 were evaluated. Numbers of Israeli tourist-entries to DENV endemic countries were available from the UN World Tourist Organization (UNWTO) database. DENV attack rates were calculated as cases per 100,000 traveler-entries. In addition, for Thailand and India incidence rates were calculated, using the average duration of stay reported in diagnosed DENV cases.

During 2008-2019, 425 Israeli travelers were diagnosed with DENV: 80.3%, 12.8% and 6.9% were acquired in Asia, America and Africa respectively. The average global DENV attack rate increased from 2.5 cases per 100,000 tourist-entries in 2008 to 10.7 cases per 100,000 tourist-entries in 2019. Region-specific DENV attack rates were 4.4, 3.2 and 2.1 cases per 100,000 tourist-entries to Asia, Africa, and America respectively. The highest number of DENV cases were reported from Thailand and India; DENV incidence rates increased from 94.5 to 142.2 cases per 100,000 travel-years, and from 49.3 to 90.4 cases per 100,000 travel-years for Thailand and India respectively.

Among Israeli travelers, worldwide DENV attack-rates have quadrupled during 2008-2019, reflecting both a growing DENV burden in Asia, but also the emergence of Africa as an important source of DENV. The need to protect travelers through vaccination remains urgent.