Detection on four continents of dengue fever cases related to an ongoing outbreak in Luanda, Angola, March to May 2013.

In April 2013, ten cases of dengue fever in travellers returning from Luanda, Angola, to five countries on four continents, were reported to the globally distributed GeoSentinel Surveillance network. Dengue virus serotype 1 was identified in two cases. The findings indicate that a major dengue outbreak is currently ongoing in Luanda. This report illustrates how cases from an emerging arboviral epidemic focus can spread internationally and highlights the risk of dissemination of a vector-borne disease into receptive areas. GeoSentinel provides a sentinel sample of returning travellers at 56 clinics in 24 countries on six continents [1]. During April 2013, GeoSentinel sites in Canada, France, Germany, Israel and South Africa reported a total of 10 cases of dengue in business travellers returning from Angola, with Luanda as the only likely place of exposure. Meanwhile, on 15 April, the Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical in Lisbon, Portugal reported 19 cases of dengue acquired in Luanda since late March 2013, in four of whom dengue virus (DENV)-1 was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) [2]. The nearly simultaneous reports of dengue cases related to travel to Luanda from five GeoSentinel sites on four continents, as well as Portugal, suggest that a large scale outbreak of dengue may in fact be unfolding in Angola.