NEWS BRIEFING: Dengue outbreak warning tool tackles growing threat to Australia

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-12-19 00:01

Australia; Pacific; NSW; QLD

Photo by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Unsplash

****BRIEFING RECORDING NOW AVAILABLE****Dengue fever is increasingly claiming lives on Australia's doorstep, and Australian outbreaks are often traced to travellers returning from popular holiday spots in our region. With the problem expected to get worse, Australian researchers are rolling out an early-warning system to help detect outbreaks in one such neighbour, Vietnam. Dengue affects more than 400 million people each year globally, and it is expanding across tropical and subtropical regions. Being able to predict dengue outbreaks weeks or months in advance could save lives. The team is turning their computer model into a practical early-warning system for frontline public-health teams, which will be rolled out across selected districts in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta in early 2026. It will be one of the first early-warning systems globally to be trialled in the real world at such a large scale. Join the briefing to hear from the researchers leading this project.

News release

From: Australian Science Media Centre

Dengue fever is increasingly claiming lives on Australia's doorstep, and Australian outbreaks are often traced to travellers returning from popular holiday spots in our region. With the problem expected to get worse, Australian researchers are rolling out an early-warning system to help detect outbreaks in one such neighbour, Vietnam.

Dengue affects more than 400 million people each year globally, and it is expanding across tropical and subtropical regions. Being able to predict dengue outbreaks weeks or months in advance could save lives.

The team is turning their computer model into a practical early-warning system for frontline public-health teams, which will be rolled out across selected districts in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta in early 2026. It will be one of the first early-warning systems globally to be trialled in the real world at such a large scale.

Join the briefing to hear from the researchers leading this project:

Speakers:

Dr Vinh Bui is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Southern Cross University
Professor Robert Dubrow is a Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health
Professor Dan Weinberger is a Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health
Associate Professor Dung Phung is from the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences (HMBS) at the University of Queensland

Date: Thu 18 Dec 2025
Start Time: 10:30am AEDT
Duration: Approx 45 min
Venue: Online - Zoom

A recording of the briefing is available below

Multimedia

Half the world is at risk - can we stop dengue before it spreads?

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Briefing recording Australian Science Media Centre, Web page

Journal/
conference: Nature Communications

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Southern Cross University, The University of Queensland, Yale School of Public Health

Funder: Wellcome Trust

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