Background Dengue fever represents a serious public health issue in Brazil. Araraquara is a city, in state of São Paulo that has been having serious outbreaks of dengue fever in the last decade, in spite of its relatively good social and economical conditions. This study mapped and analysed spatial and time distribution of the cases of dengue fever in Araraquara.

Methods Registered and confirmed cases of years 2007 and 2008 from the National System of Diseases Notification (SINAN) were geo-referenced using a street based map and a Geographic Information System (GIS). To analyse spatial temporal distribution pattern of dengue fever cases, density Kernel were used on the events according to epidemiological week.

Results In 2007, 335 cases were confirmed, and in 2008, 1233 new cases. Spatial analysis presented occurrence of dengue fever cases almost all around the urban area of the municipality of Araraquara. Important spatial variations on the distribution pattern along the epidemiological weeks were identified. In the two analysed years, most areas that presented high concentration of cases in a specific week tended to have fewer cases on the following week. However, in some areas of the city were identified clusters of dengue fever that remained in the same place.

Conclusion The results showed that, at a local intra urban level, the analysis of cases per epidemiological week can be an way to identify spatial and time important differences on the incidence of the disease and possible factors associated.