Dengue is one of the infectious diseases that is widespread over global regions with yearly occurrence of epidemics and could be deadly in some cases. Thus the developments of rapid and specific diagnostic tools which can achieve early detection of dengue infection for disease control during epidemic situations and before complications occur are deemed highly desirable. This paper describes the current and advanced methods for diagnosis of dengue infection and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of these methods in terms of their analytical performances and clinical applicabilities. The current methods discussed herein include enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. In addition, recent instrumental methods such as quartz crystal microbalance, surface plasmon resonance, photonic crystal and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy have shown promising results. Interesting developments in detection of dengue infection using nanosized materials including liposomes, nanowires and nanopores, coupled to conventional fluorescence, potentiometry and voltammetry methods are also described and could possibly point the way forward for the development of inexpensive diagnostic tools for use at point-of-care and in events of epidemic scale.