Dengue fever, transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, has undergone dramatic global expansion in the twenty-first century, with over 100 million cases annually and a fourfold increase in incidence since 2000. The disease, which causes intense joint and muscle pain earning it the colloquial name 'breakbone fever,' has spread to regions of Europe, North America, and East Asia previously free from it, driven by climate change, urbanisation, and global travel. The WHO has declared dengue one of the ten most significant global health threats.

Dengue fever's expansion into new territories has brought the experience of mosquito-borne illness to populations that previously knew the disease only through colonial literature and global health reports. Contemporary writers in affected regions — from the Caribbean to Southeast Asia and increasingly to Southern Europe — have begun to incorporate dengue's specific bodily suffering (the bone-pain, the fever, the rash) into their verse and memoir. The mosquito's expanding range, driven by climate change, is reshaping the geography of insect-poetry in real time.