Dengue infection in Lao PDR.

Epidemiology of dengue infection in Lao PDR Dengue disease is widely distributed in the whole country of Lao PDR, which consists of seven provinces. There has been a significant burden of dengue diseases over the past 4 years (Fig 1) (Khampapongpane et al, 2014). In 2010, there is a high burden of disease covering the whole country of Lao PDR with more than 400 cases per 100,000 population in most area of the country. In the year 2013, there was a serious epidemic of dengue infection in Lao PDR (Table 1, Fig 2) (WHO WPRO, 2013). The most affected provinces were the Vientiane Capital and two provinces in the South, Champasak and Salavan. Only the two northern provinces had no reported cases of dengue. The number of dengue cases, from weeks 1-23 of each year, between 2007 and 2013 are shown in Table 1. It can be clearly seen that there is a sharp increase in the number of dengue cases reported in 2013–from January to June 2013–almost 8,000 cases of dengue were reported (Fig 2) (WHO WPRO, 2013). For the first half of 2013, 31 deaths related to dengue infection had been reported. A major dengue epidemic was expected during the year of 2013 (Table 1) (WHO WPRO, 2013).