On 1 May 2019, in response to increasing numbers of dengue fever cases in Pakistan and India, health authorities in Afghanistan heightened monitoring for the disease. As part of this increased vigilance, the Central Public Health Laboratory (CPHL) in Kabul began to broaden its investigation for possible cases of the disease, such as reviewing samples that tested negative for Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) to see if they were positive for dengue.
The laboratory performed differential diagnosis and tests on 40 samples that had tested negative for Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF). Between 1 October to 4 December 2019, 14 out of the 40 samples tested positive for dengue fever by the CPHL (13 by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and one by Immunoglobulin M (IgM)). Of the 14 confirmed cases of dengue fever, seven were presumably autochthonous as the persons had no travel history to dengue endemic countries. One of the seven autochthonous cases died due to hemorrhagic fever. Six other cases had traveled to dengue endemic countries, including four people to Pakistan and two people to India. One case had an unknown travel history. Out of the 14 cases, 12 (86%) were males, between the age of 21 to 55 years old.