Myriad manifestations of dengue fever: Analysis in retrospect

ABSTRACT

Background: Dengue is a viral disease which has grown dramatically over the years and has emerged as a public health issue requiring intervention to curb its spread. Favorable environment, abundance of vector, and lack of hygiene are leading to unprecedented spread of the disease. Objectives: The objectives were to study the prevalence of various manifestations of dengue fever. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted at Sarojini Naidu Medical College, Agra, during the outbreak from August to November 2015. During the study period, we observed a total of 131 patients. The serology included dengue immunoglobulin (Ig)-M, IgG, and non-structural protein 1 antigen. This study is a hospital-based retrospective study. All the data were expressed in percentage. Results: In this study, we found that cutaneous manifestation was seen in 22.9%, bleeding manifestation in 21.37%, polyserositis in 20.61%, fever in all patients 100%, thrombocytopenia platelet count <10,000 in 71.67%, organomegaly in 25.19%, and gallbladder wall thickening in 6.1%. Atypical manifestation such as hepatic coma, acute respiratory distress, seizure, and chest pain (myocarditis) was also seen in some patients. In this study, 62.59% affected patients were young male in the age group of 21 to 50 year thus it showed that dengue is more prevalent in young male population. Conclusion: The problem of dengue is ginormous in our country; the problem is multiplied due to humongous population, poor hygiene, lack of medical and diagnostic facilities, inadequate vector control measures, and lack of awareness among the population. Hence, future studies should be aimed to identify various atypical manifestations as well as early treatment protocols for timely intervention so as to halt the disease progression.