Dengue, a viral infection transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, is a rapidly growing public health problem in tropical and sub-tropical countries. An estimated 2.5 billion people live in affected areas (WHO). The annual number of dengue infections is estimated to be 70 to 500 million (DVI). In recent years the average annual incidence of dengue?related serious disease in many tropical countries has been rising dramatically, with the infection becoming endemic in cities where its occurrence was once sporadic (Suaya et al., 2007). Global emergence of dengue is following a common trajectory in tropical urban areas: densification and lack of urban infrastructure, increased connectivity arising from globalization and new human behavior are the main factor responsible of the emergence of dengue worldwide.


Improved knowledge on dengue epidemiology will enable the identification of risk factors that may offer relatively simple, inexpensive options for intervention. In order to create new ways to improve our understanding of this disease, this ANR project has been designed with an interdisciplinary perspective: although biological, environmental and vectorial factors of risk are quite well known, the way they interact is not is not yet well defined. The project methodology is to generate through fieldwork studies detailed biological, environmental and social data that will be integrated in a GIS.


Ultimately, several aims are associated with that project :

• Observe the dengue virus diffusion at urban scale and it relation with the intra urban environment and human motilities.

• Produce new knowledge on dengue disease through serological and genetic studies with particular focus on defining the determinants of an asymptomatic outcome of infection.

• Understand the relation and the interaction between society/individuals – environment - vectors and biological factors that lead to the endemisation of dengue in the hyper endemic city of Delhi.

• Simulate the infectious dynamic through Agent based Model.