Early diagnosis of dengue disease severity in a resource-limited Asian country.

BACKGROUND: Dengue is endemic throughout Cambodia, a country faced with significant health and economic challenges. We undertook a clinical study at the National Paediatric Hospital in Phnom Penh to evaluate clinical diagnostic parameters for dengue and predictors of disease outcome. METHODS: Between September 2011 and January 2013, all consecutive inpatients aged between 1 and 15 years and presenting with suspected dengue were enrolled. They were clinically assessed using both the 1997 and 2009 WHO dengue classifications. Specimens were collected upon admission and discharge and tested for dengue at Institut Pasteur in Cambodia. RESULTS: A total of 701 patients were screened. Of these, 79 % were dengue-confirmed by laboratory testing, and 21 % tested dengue-negative. A positive tourniquet test, absence of upper respiratory symptoms, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and elevated liver transaminases were independent predictors for laboratory-confirmed dengue among the children. The presence of several warning signs on hospital admission was associated with a concurrent laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of severe disease outcome. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of two or more warning signs was associated with a concurrent laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of severe dengue at hospital admission. Thus, a cumulative score combining simple clinical parameters and first-line laboratory findings could be used to accurately predict dengue virus infection in pediatric populations, optimizing triage in settings with limited laboratory resources.

Hospital-based diagnosis of hemorrhagic fever, encephalitis, and hepatitis in Cambodian children.

Surveillance was conducted for three clinical syndromes (hemorrhagic fever, encephalitis, and hepatitis) in Cambodian children admitted to the National Pediatric Hospital in Phnom Penh from July 1996 through September 1998. Acute- and convalescent-phase sera, and cerebrospinal fluid, when applicable, underwent diagnostic evaluation for infections with Dengue virus (DENV), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), and Hepatitis A, B, C, and E viruses. Of 621 children admitted with hemorrhagic fever, 499 (80%) were confirmed to have either primary or secondary DENV infection. DENV rates were as high as 10.6/100 hospital admissions in September 1998. Of 50 children with clinical encephalitis, 9 (18%) had serologic evidence of JEV infection. Forty-four children had clinical hepatitis, most (55%) due to Hepatitis A virus (HAV). One patient had Hepatitis B virus, and no patients had hepatitis C or E. This study identified a large number of children with vaccine-preventable diseases (JEV and HAV).