Dengue virus infections cause a substantial public health burden in tropical and subtropical regions. A single dengue vaccine has been approved by regulatory authorities in 19 countries, but concerns regarding vaccine safety in people who are dengue naive at the time of immunisation has introduced uncertainty into the vaccine's future. As other dengue vaccines complete or enter large-scale efficacy trials, we argue that foundational work by Sabin, historic epidemiological observations of dengue outbreaks, and prospective cohort studies in Asia and the Americas indicate that modifications must be made to the methods of assessing dengue vaccines.