Public Health: Is The Endgame In Sight for Dengue?

In 2021, Malaysia recorded the lowest number of dengue cases since the last decade. It’s been a hard-won victory, with dengue proving stubbornly persistent within the community for past decades. However, Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has also cautioned that cases may spike again in the next five-year cycle. What do we need to learn from our recent achievements in bringing down dengue cases, and what control measures need to be ramped up to ensure we don’t repeat the same mistakes? In this Public Health episode with Azrul Mohd Khalib, we get senior consultant paediatrician Prof Dr Lucy Lum to reflect on the evolution of dengue over the decades, and whether vaccines and mosquito control will help us win the endgame against dengue.

Image credit: Shutterstock