Surveillance of dengue infection among children in Sri Lanka is providing practical assistance to the global effort to combat this neglected - but nevertheless costly and potentially fatal - disease, according to research presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia (November 3-7, 2010). Hasitha Tissera from the Sri Lanka Ministry of Health and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine discusses the progress they've made in understanding this mosquito-borne viral disease, and urges greater international efforts to provide a vaccine and better treatments.