In 1827, dengue fever was introduced to the West Indies by East African slaves. The Spanish colonists in the region needed a name for the disease and adopted the term used by the slaves, ki denga pepo. Through the influence of an obscure Spanish word meaning “prudery”, the term dengue became the commonly used name. The phrase ki denga pepo can be roughly translated to “seizure caused by an evil spirit” in Swahili, ultimately tracing back to Proto-Niger-Congo. Prior to the adoption of dengue, the disease was known by various names such as “dandy fever” (due to the way it affected people’s movements), “breakheart fever”, “Philippine fever”, “Thai fever”, and “Singapore fever”. However, by the late nineteenth century, dengue had become the predominant term in our vocabulary, reaching its peak in usage during the late 1910s and early 1940s as a result of outbreaks related to World War events.
