Dengue Fever

Dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are viral diseases transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, usually Ae. aegypti. The four dengue viruses (DEN-1 through DEN-4) are immunologically related, but do not provide cross-protective immunity against each other.

This infectious disease is manifested by a sudden onset of fever, with severe headache, muscle and joint pains (myalgias and arthralgias — severe pain gives it the name break-bone fever or bonecrusher disease) and rashes; the dengue rash is characteristically bright red petechia and usually appears first on the lower limbs and the chest - in some patients, it spreads to cover most of the body. There may also be gastritis with some combination of associated abdominal pain, nausea,vomiting or diarrhea.

The World Health Organization considers dengue to be the most important vector-borne viral disease, potentially affecting 2.5 billion people in more than 100 tropical and sub-tropical countries throughout the world . Current estimates suggest that up to 50 to 100 million dengue cases occur annually, in addition to 500,000 cases of the more serious dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). DHF has a 5% case-fatality rate in many countries, with most fatalities occurring among children and young adults.