Dengue: call for urgent interventions for a rapidly expanding emerging disease

Over the past three decades, dengue fever/dengue hemorrhagic fever has been rapidly expanding in the Eastern Mediterranean Region with outbreaks documented in countries along the coastal lines of the Red Sea and Arabian Sea and in Pakistan. The paper describes the current situation in the Region and proposes specific areas for strengthening of core capacities in the short, medium and long term to reduce the threat of this emerging disease, which threatens national, regional and global health security. The means of prevention and control are well identified and require partnership between different sectors.