Break Dengue 2019 report An open platform to anyone concerned about the problem of dengue

Introduction from the Programme Manager

With 2,976,800,000 people in 150 countries at risk of dengue, unfortunately not enough is being done to fight it. During 2019, most endemic countries faced massive dengue outbreaks, with devastating economic and human impacts. In addition to dengue cases and deaths reported in endemic countries, Western countries are also at increasing risk as a consequence of global warming.

Break Dengue’s mission is to take on this challenge and we have developed different initiatives in this direction. For us, 2019 acted as a global wake-up call and we increased our efforts to face the dengue challenge.

Erich Blanchet Programme Manager

2019 Achievements

eBarometer

The eBarometer is a digital platform that provides predictive, tailor-made and actionable alerts to various audiences on the ground, from healthcare authorities to citizens. It will dramatically increase efficiency in the fight against dengue, helping people to actively prepare for future outbreaks, implementing the best possible actions, and therefore reducing the annual human and economic burden of the disease. In 2019 we started building sections of the eBarometer, together with a team of Google volunteers, and we now have a strong basis to move forward, with all the required expertise and local support in endemic countries.

UN-backed World Dengue Day (WDD)

In 2019, we have launched a survey to further engage with people on the ground and understand the most pressing needs they face in tackling dengue.

We then launched a petition to support the creation of a World Dengue Day that would help raise awareness and engage people and authorities globally in a massive movement to finally break dengue.

Literature review:

Dengue is not prioritised or treated as the growing threat it is by most authorities, and certainly not in Western countries.

We have therefore completed a literature review to gather and communicate evidence and turn it into a call for action globally.

Epidemic preparedness is a challenge the United Nations, the World Bank and the World Health Organisation have been trying to put on the agenda over the last years, without significant success.

Our 2020 Approach

In 2019, the world has witnessed significant successes against malaria. Dengue must come next. We know the journey will be a long one, but we will strengthen our efforts in 2020 towards this thrilling challenge. We will leverage our literature review to inform a call for western countries to take action on dengue, continue our campaign to create a UN-backed World Dengue Day, and advance the first eBarometer pilots for several countries.

The Break Dengue Board

The Break Dengue Board consists of:

  • Marnix Van Loock Associate Scientific Director at Janssen, Pharmaceutical
  • Bernadette Hendrickx CEO and Founder SAHB Consulting
  • Lode Dewulf Medical Coordinator, Doctors of the World (Medecins du Monde) Belgium
  • Dr. Lulu Bravo Professor of Pediatric Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the College of Medicine, University of the Philippines Manila

The Break Dengue Team

The Break Dengue Board consists of:

  • Nicholas Brooke Executive Director
  • Helena Harnik Synergist Programs Director
  • Eric Blanchet Operations Director & Programme Manager
  • Jean-Christophe Capelle Financial Director
  • Roxana Radu Communications Manager
  • Gulwish Ahmed Coordinator
  • Daniela Luzuriaga Ubilla Project Coordinator
  • Lise Brooke Growth Hacker
  • Gary Finnegan Editor in Chief, Break Dengue
  • Anne-Marie Hamoir Senior Consultant

Our Partners

They made all this possible

A total of 4 partners have decided to join forces to support and push forward our initiatives. This represents a major change in philosophy that has already started generating significant output on all projects.