Since 2003, and in response to the dengue situation in the Americas, the PAHO/WHO Regional Dengue Program, along with the countries in the Americas, implemented the Integrated Management Strategy for dengue prevention and control in the Americas (IMS-Dengue). This strategy integrates six components; patient care, social communication, environment, integrated vector management, laboratory and epidemiology. The epidemiological surveillance is part of this last component and represents one of the main challenges at Regional level, however, significant achievements are being made in terms of standardization of indicators, which will allow for timely interventions. 

Since 1980, PAHO/WHO has collected epidemiological data regarding the occurrence of dengue that the countries and territories in the Americas have reported directly or have published in national bulletins. Currently, there are 46 countries and territories reporting, weekly and systematically, the number of dengue cases, incidence rate, number of severe cases, number of deaths and case fatality rate, as well as entomological surveillance data. Additionally, the laboratories that integrate the Dengue Laboratory Network of the Americas (“RELDA”; 22 national laboratories of reference and 4 collaborating centers of PAHO/WHO) provide periodic information regarding the circulating serotypes in the Region. Nowadays, the epidemiologic surveillance of dengue in the Americas is based on a system of mandatory notification that covers all of the national territory.