The Economic Penalty of Dengue

The WHO estimates that 40% of the world’s population is at risk of getting dengue. Despite its high economic costs, dengue is often neglected in the face of more severe diseases. This paper aims to understand the effect of dengue on economic growth. Data on geographic variables, dengue incidence, and trade openness were obtained for 187 countries for the years 1990 to 2009. Results were largely inconclusive due to gaps in the dataset and the possibility of GDP growth far outpacing improvements in dengue surveillance. However, dengue has been proven to be extremely resilient and more research is crucial to mitigating the potentially large economic burden of dengue.