Dengue in French Guiana. History and present status

The evolution of dengue in French Guiana has the same trend as in most tropical American countries, with emergence of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and endemicity of the disease. During the 1940's, several dengue-like outbreaks were reported from French Guiana. Then, the only dengue vector, Aedes aegypti, was eradicated between 1950 and 1963, when it started to reinfest the country. By the end of the 1960's, new dengue epidemics with serological confirmation were described. After 1970, the first dengue strains were isolated, firstly dengue-2 strains, then dengue-1 and dengue-4 strains. Between 1970 and 1990, several dengue outbreaks struck French Guiana with 2 to 6 years intervals. In July 1991, started the first DHF outbreak in French Guiana which spread in all the most important towns until October 1992. About 3,000 cases were reported, that is almost 3% of the population, from which about 1/3 had serological confirmation; more than 300 people were hospitalized and some 80 with hemorrhages. Finally 6 deaths were reported, 5 of which had hemorrhages but could not be included into DHF cases according to WHO criteria. The dengue-2 strain responsible for this outbreak is close to the Jamaïcan topotype known to be particularly virulent. Since the beginning of 1993 and actually, dengue is still circulating in French Guiana, but at low level and dengue-1 and dengue-4 strains are occasionally isolated.