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Volume 18, Number 4—April 2012
Historical Review

Dengue and US Military Operations from Spanish–American War through Today

Robert V. GibbonsComments to Author , Matthew Streitz, Tatyana Babina, and Jessica R. Fried
Author affiliations: Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Science, Bangkok, Thailand (R.V. Gibbons); Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, USA (M. Streitz, T. Babina); Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Bangkok (J.R. Fried)

Main Article

Table 1

Dengue in US service members during World War II*

Location Dates Attack rate, % No. cases Maximum no. cases/1,000/y Reference
North Territory and Queensland, Australia 1942 Mar–May 80 ND ND (13)
Rockhampton/Brisbane, Australia 1943 Jan–Mar ND 463 ND (14)
Espiritu Santo, archipelago of New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) 1943 Feb–Aug 25 ≈5,000 1,713 (15)
New Caledonia 1943 Jan–Aug ND ND 645 (13)
1943 Jan–Aug ND ND 120
Hawaii 1943 ND 56 ND (16,17)
Gilbert Islands 1944 ND 396 26 (16)
New Guinea 1944 Jan–Dec ND 24,079 198 (13)
1945 Jan–Aug ND 2,960 31
Philippines† 1944 Nov–Dec ND 2,012 49 (13)
1945 Jan–Dec ND 8926 32
Saipan, Mariana Islands 1944 Jul–Sep ND ~20,000 3,560 (13,16)
China-Burma-India 1943 ND ND 25 (13)
1944 ND ND 31
1945 ND ND 8
Okinawa, Japan 1945 Apr–Aug ND ≈865 275 (18)
Hankow, China 1945 Sep 83 40 ND (13)

*ND, no data.
†Reported to have reached 68 cases/1,000 service members/year in the Sixth Army.

Main Article

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