Dengue in French Guiana, 1965-1993

While it seems likely that dengue fever (DF) has existed in French Guiana for at least one century, data on outbreaks are sketchy before temporary eradication of the dengue vector mosquito Aedes aegypti and its reestablishment in the early 1960s. Dengue cases were serologically confirmed for the first time in 1965, and since then dengue epidemics have occurred at two to six year intervals, the most important occurring in 1968-1969, 1970, 1972, 1976, 1982, 1986, and 1992. Three of the four dengue virus serotypes (dengue-1, dengue-2, and dengue-4) have been implicated in these outbreaks. During the 1992 epidemic, which appears to have begun in 1991 and extended into 1993, cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) were confirmed for the first time. In all, at least 40 DHF cases and several deaths were associated with this epidemic. This development has raised considerable concern about the public health threat posed by DHF in French Guiana. Such concern is only heightened by the fact that while vector control is the sole means of preventing or combating dengue outbreaks, it has proved difficult to maintain vector populations at low levels with the control measures currently employed.