Climate warming and urbanization may expand dengue transmission risk in California
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Background
While primarily a disease of tropical and subtropical regions, dengue outbreaks are increasing in non-endemic regions due to environmental change and increasing travel and trade. For these non-endemic regions, estimating the risk of dengue is challenging as transmission is driven by both local environmental conditions and the introduction of viremic travelers. In this study, we aimed to estimate current and future dengue risk in California, USA—a region that has recently experienced its first cases of locally-acquired dengue.
Methods
We modeled dengue risk as the product of three key components needed for local transmission—vector presence, temperature-suitability for pathogen transmission, and viral introductions via travel-associated cases—estimated using vector and case surveillance, sociodemographic, and environmental data. We estimated risk for locations and months where local transmission was reported in 2023-2024 to define a ‘threshold’ level of risk. We then projected monthly, census tract-level risk under both current conditions and future scenarios of climate warming and urban expansion.
Findings
Approximately 18.2 million (95% CI: 17.9-18.3) California residents—primarily in the Central Valley and the Los Angeles and San Diego metropolitan areas—currently live in areas where peak monthly dengue risk exceeds levels estimated during observed local transmission. Under moderate scenarios of climate warming and urban expansion, an additional 4.1 million (95% CI: 3.7-4.6) California residents may be at risk by mid-century, with the largest increase in risk estimated for September and for the Sacramento Valley and coastal southern California regions. Outside the summer months and beyond the Central Valley and southern California, current and future risk remains low due to one or more major bottlenecks to transmission.
Interpretation
Our study identifies the specific regions and months conducive to dengue transmission in the non-endemic setting of California. At present, this covers a substantial portion of the state and is projected to expand under on-going climate warming and urbanization. Our results underscore the need for sustained vector control, and timely detection and management of travel-associated cases.
Research in Context
Evidence before this study
Dengue is considered endemic in over 125 countries and rapidly expanding its range, aided by climate warming, urbanization, and global travel and trade. Estimating transmission risk in newly emerging regions is critical for public health preparedness and depends on both local environmental conditions and the introduction of viremic travelers. We searched PubMed from database inception to May 8, 2025, for articles published in English using search terms “dengue”, “model”, “non-endemic”, and their common textual variants. We identified 75 relevant studies modeling dengue transmission risk in non-endemic settings. However, nearly all were focused on one or two major determinants of transmission (eg, climate, vector population dynamics, or case importations) and/or did not include future projections. We found no studies that developed and validated a model of dengue transmission risk in non-endemic settings that incorporated vector, pathogen, and human suitability factors, and applied this model to project future risk.
Added value of this study
This study provides a novel approach to model dengue transmission risk in emerging regions that integrates the major factors driving transmission—vector presence, temperature suitability, and travel-associated cases. We apply this model to California—an emerging center of transmission risk in the continental USA—to identify the times and regions where risk exceeds levels observed during recent local transmission. We found that approximately 18.2 million California residents may be at risk based on this threshold, with an additional 4.1 million potentially at risk by mid-century under a moderate scenario of warming and urban expansion.
Implications of all the available evidence
Our study identifies the hotspots of dengue transmission risk at a fine spatial and temporal resolution (census tract, month) in a highly populous and globally-connected region of emerging dengue risk. These risk estimates, and the regionally-specific bottlenecks to transmission that we identify can inform targeted disease surveillance and prevention strategies. Further, our findings have implications for other emerging regions including the southern USA and southern Europe, suggesting that the risk of local dengue transmission may increase under ongoing climate warming, urbanization, and global travel.
