Home About us Editorial board Search Ahead of print Current issue Archives Submit article Instructions Subscribe Contacts Login 
Home Print this page Email this page
Users Online:: 9987

 Table of Contents  
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Year : 2014  |  Volume : 17  |  Issue : 3  |  Page : 83-86

A descriptive study on dengue fever reported in a Medical College Hospital


Department of Community Medicine, Department of Community Medicine, M.O.S.C Medical College, Kolenchery, Ernakulam District, Kerala State, India

Date of Web Publication6-Sep-2014

Correspondence Address:
Jimmy Antony
M.O.S.C Medical College, Kolenchery, Ernakulam, Kerala - 682 311
India
Login to access the Email id

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


DOI: 10.4103/1118-8561.140285

Rights and Permissions
  Abstract 

Background: Dengue fever is a serious public health problem in terms of its morbidity and mortality. It reports from almost all countries and it is endemic in the tropical countries. Aim: The present hospital study aims to describe  the frequency , distribution and case fatality of dengue fever based on the variables such as age, sex and year. Settings and Design: It is a hospital-based retrospective study of 5 years in tertiary care and teaching hospital in South India. Materials and Methods: The data were collected from the medical records department of the hospital and analyzed by using Microsoft excel. Result: Out of 341 reported cases of dengue, 60.70% were males and 39.29% were females. In both males and females, the high proportion of cases were reported in adult age groups (>20 years). Case fatality rate of dengue fever is 1.2%, with 0.97% in males and 1.49% in females. Out of 341 cases, 333 (97.65%) were Classical Dengue Fever and remaining 8 cases (2.34%) were dengue hemorrhagic fever. Conclusion: More cases of dengue fever were reported in the adult age group (20 years and above) and in males compared to low age groups (<20 years) and females. It highlights the involvement of work component in the occurrence of disease. Community-based action program is required for source reduction activities in the outdoor area for arresting the breeding and multiplication of Aedes mosquitoes and thereby to reduce the morbidity and mortality of dengue fever.

Keywords: Age, case fatality, dengue fever, sex and year


How to cite this article:
Antony J, Celine T M. A descriptive study on dengue fever reported in a Medical College Hospital. Sahel Med J 2014;17:83-6

How to cite this URL:
Antony J, Celine T M. A descriptive study on dengue fever reported in a Medical College Hospital. Sahel Med J [serial online] 2014 [cited 2024 Mar 28];17:83-6. Available from: https://www.smjonline.org/text.asp?2014/17/3/83/140285


  Introduction Top


Dengue fever is an infectious mosquito-borne disease caused by dengue virus. Its symptoms include fever, head ache, muscle and joint pains and rash resembles measles. The presence of muscle and joint paints gives an alternative name to the dengue fever as 'break bone fever'. [1] Classical dengue fever cases sometimes develop to more severe life-threatening stage of dengue hemorrhagic fever or dengue hemorrhagic fever with shock. The disease is transmitted by the bite of certain species of female Aedes mosquito. Subsequent infection with different serotypes increases the severity of this fatal infection. The control measures of dengue fever include source reduction activities and also the personal prophylaxis measures. This study aimed for finding out the frequency and distribution of dengue fever and its case fatality based on the variables such as age and sex during a time period of 5 years.


  Materials and methods Top


It is a retrospective study of five years conducted in the MOSC Medical College hospital, Kolenchery, Kerala State in South India.  The medical records department follows the guidelines of WHO ICD 10 for the classification of diseases. The data retrieved from the medical records department with the permission of institutional ethical committee and collected data were analyzed using Microsoft excel.


  Result Top


A total of 341 dengue cases were reported at the hospital during the time period from April 2005 to March 2010. Of 341 cases, 207 (60.70%) were males and 134 (39.29%) were females. The proportion of male cases was higher than females. High proportion of dengue cases were in 20 to 39 years (42.02%) in males while females showing high proportion of cases in the 40 to 59 years (41.04%). Dengue fever  in both males and females in different age groups has been shown in [Table 1]. Case fatality rate of dengue fever is 1.2%; with 0.97% in males and 1.49% in females. Out of 341 cases, 333 (97.65%) were due to classical dengue fever and remaining 8 cases (2.34%) were due to dengue hemorrhagic fever. The trend of case fatality of dengue fever in males and females from 2005 to 2010 has been given in [Figure 1].
Figure 1: Trend of case fatality of dengue fever in males and females from 2005 to 2010

Click here to view
Table 1: Case infection of dengue fever: Age and sex wise distribution

Click here to view



  Discussion Top


Dengue fever reports from many parts of the world including Africa, America, Eastern Mediterranean, Western pacific and South East Asia [2] (WHO). The last decade witnessed this pandemic in different countries of the world such as Bangladesh in 2000, [3] Hawaii in 2001, [4] Rio de Janeiro of Brazil in 2002, [5] Texas [6] and Singapore [7] in 2005, India [8] and Pakistan [9] in 2006, Paraguay in 2007, [10] Cairns in the Queensland state of Australia in 2008, [11] Bolivia [12] and Argentina [13] in 2009, Florida [14] in 2010, Latin America [15] in 2012 and Brazil [16] in 2013. As far as India is concerned the dengue fever cases reporting from all states of the country such as Rajasthan, [17] Punjab, [18] Uttar Pradesh, [19] Madhya Pradesh, [20] Maharashtra, [21] Andhra Pradesh, [22] West Bengal, [23] Assam and Nagaland, [24] Karnataka, [25] Tamil Nadu, [26] and Kerala. [27]

In the present study 341 confirmed dengue cases were reported at the medical college hospital during the time period. Out of 341 cases, 4 deaths reported with a case fatality rate of 1.17%; it is 0.97% in males and 1.49% in females. The case fatality rate of dengue fever in the present study is higher than in Jakarta [28] (0.04%) and West Bengal [29] (0.54%) and less than a study conducted (1.5%) in India [29] and 3.2% of other South Indian study in 2005. [30] In the present study, case fatality rate of classical dengue fever is 0.90% and the dengue hemorrhagic fever is 12.5%. Dengue hemorrhagic fever reports high case fatality rate in the study area compared to the other regions, 0.76% in Jakarta, [28] 1.4% in Indonesia, 2.8% in West Java and 8.5% in West Bengal. [29]

Studies show that dengue fever report more in adult age group (>20 years) compared to the low age group (<20 years). In the present study also dengue fever is higher in adult age groups (>20 years) than the low age groups (<20 years) in both males and females. A study conducted by Chia-Hsien Lin et al. in Taiwan [31] reports that dengue fever is higher in adult age groups compared to lower age groups. Another study conducted by Adriana et al. in Brazil [32] also reveals that adult age group shows the predominance in dengue fever. Studies conducted by Ooi et al., [33] and Yew et al. in Singapore, [34] Anker et al. in six Asian countries, [35] Qureshi et al. in Pakistan, [36] Lin et al. in Taiwan [37] also proves the same. Study reports from England, Wales and Northern Island [35] also support this fact in their studies as dengue fever reports higher in the adult population (>20 years). This predominance of adults may be due to involvement of adult groups in outdoor works compared to low age group as they have the more chances of exposing infected mosquitoes than the low age groups.

In the present study, the proportion of male cases is higher than the female cases. In males, it is 60.70% and in females it is 39.29% of total dengue fever cases. A study conducted by Eong [38] in Singapore supports that proportion of males was higher than females in their study. Ruel Perez [39] also support that in his study in Manila, Philippines, males are more prone to dengue fever than females. But a South American study conducted by Kaplan et al. [40] reports in their study that more cases were in females compared to males. Study reports from Asian countries such as Cambodia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Philippines [35] and India [41] reveal the high preponderance of males in dengue fever and pointing out the fact that it may be due to the outdoor work habit of men compared to females. A majority of the studies points out the fact that males have more outdoor work habits compared to females. They are more exposed to the mosquito bite during their day time work or while travelling to the work site in the early morning or returning from the work site in the late evening. Study reports from Pakistan by Qureshi et al., [36] an Indian study by Vijayakumar et al., [42] and Thailand study by Tharava et al. [43] uniformly support that the male preponderance in the dengue fever and it is mainly due to the outdoor work nature of males compared to females. So the high number of infected dengue cases in adult age groups and in males is strongly indicating the involvement of work component in this infection because children and women are spending much time in indoors and less exposed to the vectors of dengue infection. [44] Thus, more infection in the adult age groups and males compared to the low age groups and females in the present study highlights the possibility of occupational exposure of the dengue infection. While dengue fever vectors show much outdoor habitats, the people work in the outdoors are high risk groups and much emphasize to be given for personal prophylaxis and also for source reduction activities to control the breeding and multiplication of Aedes mosquitoes.


  Conclusion Top


As the prevention of dengue fever lacks proper vaccine, the main preventive strategy is the awareness building in the community regarding the source reduction process by emptying the man made containers or dispose those in a systematic or in a proper way. Much efforts to be taken to promote the participation of the community in the action program for eliminating vector-breeding sites.

 
  References Top

1.Chen LH, Wilson ME. Dengue and chikungunya infections in travelers. Curr Opin Infect Dis 2010;23:438-44.   Back to cited text no. 1
    
2.Global strategy for dengue prevention and control. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2012. p. 16-7.   Back to cited text no. 2
    
3.Rahman M, Rahman M, Rahman K, Siddque AK, Shoma S, Kamal AH, et al. First outbreak of dengue hemorrhagic fever, Bangladesh. Emerg Infect Dis 2002;8:738-40.  Back to cited text no. 3
    
4.Smith CE, Tom T, Sasaki J, Ayers T, Effler PV. Dengue risk among visitors to Hawaii during an outbreak. Emerg Infect Dis 2005;11:750-6.  Back to cited text no. 4
    
5.Oliveira MF, Galvao Araujo JM, Ferreira OC Jr, Ferreira DF, Lima DB, et al. Two Lineales of Dengue virus type 2, Brazil. Emerg Infect Dis 2010;16:576-8.  Back to cited text no. 5
    
6.Adalja AA, Sell TK, Bouri N, Franco C. Lessons learned during dengue outbreaks in the United States, 2001-2011. Emerg Infect Dis 2012;18:608-14.  Back to cited text no. 6
    
7.Koh BK, Ng LC, Kita Y, Tang CS, Ang LW, Wong KY, et al. The 2005 dengue epidemic in Singapore: Epidemiology, prevention and control. Ann Acad Med Singapore 2008;37:538-45.  Back to cited text no. 7
    
8.Sinha N, Gupta N, Jhamb R, Gulati S, Kulkarni Ajit V. The 2006 dengue outbreak in Delhi, India. J Commun Dis 2008;40:243-8.  Back to cited text no. 8
    
9.Khan E, Siddiqui J, Shakoor S, Mehraj V, Jamil B, Hasan R. Out break in Karachi, Pakisthan, 2006: Experience at a tertiary care centre. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 2007;101:1114-9.  Back to cited text no. 9
    
10.Kim Knowlton, Gina soloman, Miriam Rotkin- Ellman. Fever pitch, Mosquito -Borne dengue fever threat spreading in the Americas-NRDC Issue paper July 2009.  Back to cited text no. 10
    
11.Dengue outbreak cases increase rapidly in Cairns. Media release 12 th December, 2008, Queensland health.  Back to cited text no. 11
    
12.'Dengue fever worsens in Bolivia' BBC 2009-02-26. Archieved from the original on 1 st March, 2009.  Back to cited text no. 12
    
13.Bernardini Zambrini DA. Neglected lessons from the 2009 dengue epidemic in Argentina. Rev Saude Publica 2011;45:428-31.  Back to cited text no. 13
    
14.Radke EG, Gregory CJ, Kintziger KW, Sauber-Schatz EK, Hunsperger EA, Gallagher GR, et al. Dengue outbreak in Key West, Florida, USA, 2009. Emerg Infect Dis 202;18:135-7.  Back to cited text no. 14
    
15.Hoen AG, Keller M, Verma AD, Buckeridge DL, Brownstein JS. Brownstein. Electronic Event-based surveillance for monitoring dengue, Latin America. Emerg Infect Dis 2012;18:1147-50.  Back to cited text no. 15
    
16.Brazilian city declares Health emerging due to Dengue fever outbreak. Kaiser Dailey Global Health Policy Report, January 23, 2013.  Back to cited text no. 16
    
17.Dengue cases on the rise in Rajasthan, Hindusthan Times; Accessed 9 th October, 2006.www.thefullwiki.org/2006_dengue_outbreak_in_india.  Back to cited text no. 17
    
18.Kaur H, Prabhakar H, Mathew P, Marshalla R, Arya M. Dengue haemorrhagic fever out break in October- November 1996 in Ludhiana, Punjab, India. Indian J Med Res 1997;106:1-3.  Back to cited text no. 18
    
19.More dengue Chikungunya cases reported, NDTV, Webversion, Accessed 9 th October, 2006.wpedia.goo.ne.jp/enwiki/2006_dengue_outbreak_in_india.  Back to cited text no. 19
    
20.Rodrigues FM, Pavri KM, Dandawate CN, Banerjee K, Bhatt PN. An investigation of the aetiology of the 1996 Out break of febrile illness in Jabalpur, Madhyapradesh. Indian J med Res 1973;61:1462-70.  Back to cited text no. 20
    
21.Shah I, Deshpande GC, Tardeja PN. Outbreak of dengue in Mumbai and predictive markers for dengue shock syndrome. J Trop Paediatr 2004;50:301-5.  Back to cited text no. 21
    
22.Krishnamurthy K, Kasturi TE, Chittipantulu G. Clinical and Pathological Studies of an oubreak of dengue like illness in Visakhapatnam. Indian J Med Res 1965;53:800-12.  Back to cited text no. 22
    
23.Mukherjee KK, Chakravarti SK, Dey PN, Dey S, Chakraborthy MS. Out break of febrile illness due to dengue virus type 3 in Calcutta during 1983. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1987;81:1008-10.  Back to cited text no. 23
    
24.Barua HC, Mahanta J. Serological evidence of Den-2 activity in Assam and Nagaland. J Communi Dis 1996;28:56-8.  Back to cited text no. 24
    
25.Padbidri VS, Adhikari P, Thakre JP, Ilkal MA, Joshi GD, Pereira P, et al. The 1993 epidemic of dengue fever in Mangalore Karnataka State, India. Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health 1995;26:699-704.  Back to cited text no. 25
    
26.Paramasivan R, Dhananjeyan KJ, Leo SV, Muniaraj M, Thenmozhi V, Rajendran R, et al. Dengue fever caused by dengue virus serotype-3 (Subtype-111) in a rural area of Mudurai district, Tamilnadu. Indian J Med Res 2010;132:339-42.  Back to cited text no. 26
[PUBMED]  Medknow Journal  
27.Anoop M, Issac A, Mathew T, Philip S, Kareem NA, Unnikrishnan R, et al. Genetic characterization of dengue virus serotypes causing concurrent infection in an outbreak in Ernakulam, Kerala, South India. Indian J Exp Biol 2010;48:849-57.  Back to cited text no. 27
    
28.Sungkars, Sari Fadli, Sukmaningsih A. Trend of Dengue Hemorrhagic fever in North Jakarta. J Indonesian Med Assoc 2011;61: 394-9.   Back to cited text no. 28
    
29.Suman Kanungo Ananda Amarasingh, Dipika Sur, Byomkesh Manna, Shyamalendu Chatterjee, Provash Sadhukhan, Shanta Dutta, Mark E Beatty, Sekhar Chakrabarty. Surveillance for dengue fever in eastern Kolkata, West Bengal, India: preliminary results. International meeting on emerging diseases and surveillance, Abstract presented at IMED Vienna, Austria. Feb 13-16, 2009. Abstract no: 18.037, p. 148.   Back to cited text no. 29
    
30.Rachel Daniel, Rajamohanan and Aby Zachariah Philip. A Study of clinical profile of Dengue fever in Kollam, Kerala, India. Dengue Bulletin 2005; 29:197-202.  Back to cited text no. 30
    
31.Lin CH, Schiøler KL, Jepsen MR, Ho CK, Li SH, Konradsen F. Dengue outbreaks in high income area, Kaohsiung city, Taiwan, 2003-2009. Emerg Infect Dis 2012;18:1063-11.  Back to cited text no. 31
    
32.Guilarde AO1, Turchi MD, Siqueira JB Jr, Feres VC, Rocha B, Levi JE, et al. Dengue and Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever among adults. Clinical outcomes related to Viremia, Serotypes and Antibody response. J Infect Dis 2008;197:817-24.  Back to cited text no. 32
    
33.Ooi EE, Goh KT, Gubler DJ. Dengue prevention and 35 year of vector control in Singapore. Emerg infect Dis 2006;12:887-93.  Back to cited text no. 33
    
34.Yew YW, Ye T, Ang LW, Ng LC, Yap G, James L, et al. Sero-epidemiology of dengue virus infection among adults in Singapore. Ann Acad Med 2009;38:667-75.  Back to cited text no. 34
    
35.Anker M, Arima Y. Male female difference in the number of reported incident dengue fever cases in Six Asian countries. Western Pac Surveill Response J 2011;2:17-23.  Back to cited text no. 35
    
36.Qureshi JA, Notta NJ, Salabuddin N, Zaman V, Khan JA. An Epidemic of Dengue fever in Karachi: Associated clinical manifestations. J Pak Med Assoc 1997;47:178-81.  Back to cited text no. 36
    
37.Lin CC, Huang YH, Shu PY, Wu HS, Lin YS, Yeh TM, et al. Characteristics of dengue disease in Taiwan 2002-2007. Am J Trop Med Hyg 2010;82:731-9.  Back to cited text no. 37
    
38.Eong OE. Changing pattern of dengue transmission in Singapore. Dengue Bull 2001;25:40-44. Available from: http://209.61.208.233/Linkfiles/dengue_bulletin__volume_25_ch7.pdf [Last accessed on 2013 Jan 13].  Back to cited text no. 38
    
39.Ruel Perex. Males more prone to dengue than females-DOH. Inquirer news. inquirer.net September 6 th , 2011.  Back to cited text no. 39
    
40.Kaplan JE, Eliason DA, Moore M, Sather GE, Schonberger LB, Cabrera-Coello L, et al. Epidemiologic investigations of dengue infection in Mexico, 1980. Am J Epidemol 1983;117;335-43.  Back to cited text no. 40
    
41.Agarwal R, Kapoor S, Nagar R, Misra A, Tandon R, Mathur A, et al. A Clinical study of the patients with denue hemorrhagic fever during the epidemic of 1996 at Lucknow, India. Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health 1999;30:735-40.  Back to cited text no. 41
    
42.Vijayakumar TS, Chandy S, Satish N, Abraham M, Abraham P, Sridhavan G. Is dengue emerging as a major public health problem? Indian J Med Res 2005;121:100-7.  Back to cited text no. 42
    
43.Thavara U, Tawatsin A, Chansang C, Kong-ngamsuk W, Paosriwong S, Boon-Long J, et al. Larval occurance ovi position behaviour and biting activity of potential mosquito vectors of dengue on Samui Island, Thailand. J Vector Eco 2001;26:172-80.  Back to cited text no. 43
    
44.Goh KT, Ng SK, Chan YC, Lim SJ, Chua EC. Epidemiological aspects of an outbreak of dengue fever/dengue haemorrhagic fever in Singapore. Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health 1987;18:295-302.  Back to cited text no. 44
    


    Figures

  [Figure 1]
 
 
    Tables

  [Table 1]


This article has been cited by
1 Dengue Vaccination: Towards a New Dawn of Curbing Dengue Infection
Sidhant Jain, Neha Vimal, Nilza Angmo, Madhumita Sengupta, Suraj Thangaraj
Immunological Investigations. 2023; : 1
[Pubmed] | [DOI]
2 Seroprevalence and changing trend of dengue in a tertiary care hospital, Bhubaneswar, Odisha: Four-year retrospective study
Basanti Kumari Pathi, Nirmala Poddar, Kumudini Panigrahi, Dipti Pattnaik, Jagadananda Jena
Indian Journal of Microbiology Research. 2022; 9(1): 50
[Pubmed] | [DOI]
3 Analysis of a Dengue Virus Outbreak in Rosso, Senegal 2021
Idrissa Dieng, Mamadou Aliou Barry, Cheikh Talla, Bocar Sow, Oumar Faye, Moussa Moise Diagne, Ousseynou Sene, Oumar Ndiaye, Boly Diop, Cheikh Tidiane Diagne, Gamou Fall, Amadou Alpha Sall, Cheikh Loucoubar, Ousmane Faye
Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease. 2022; 7(12): 420
[Pubmed] | [DOI]
4 Clinical diversity and outcome of dengue fever outbreak-2019 described in a hospital of Dhaka
Ferdousi Hasnat, Mahbub Mutanabbi, Farhana Noman, Mohammed Nurullah, RifatT Anne, Jesmeen Morshed
Paediatric Nephrology Journal of Bangladesh. 2021; 6(2): 81
[Pubmed] | [DOI]
5 Temporal variation and geospatial clustering of dengue in Delhi, India 2015–2018
Poornima Suryanath Singh,Himanshu K Chaturvedi
BMJ Open. 2021; 11(2): e043848
[Pubmed] | [DOI]
6 Field Deployment of a Mobile Biosafety Laboratory Reveals the Co-Circulation of Dengue Viruses Serotype 1 and Serotype 2 in Louga City, Senegal, 2017
Idrissa Dieng,Maryam Diarra,Moussa Moďse Diagne,Martin Faye,Marie Henriette Dior Ndione,Yamar Ba,Mamadou Diop,El Hadji Ndiaye,Paolo Marinho de Andrade Zanotto,Boly Diop,Mamadou Ndiaye,Abdoulaye Bousso,Ndongo Dia,Mawlouth Diallo,Aliou Barry,Gamou Fall,Cheikh Loucoubar,Amadou Alpha Sall,Ousmane Faye,Oumar Faye,Jean-Paul J. Gonzalez
Journal of Tropical Medicine. 2021; 2021: 1
[Pubmed] | [DOI]
7 Spatial and temporal analysis of hospitalized dengue patients in Bandung: demographics and risk
Lia Faridah,I. Gede Nyoman Mindra,Ramadhani Eka Putra,Nisa Fauziah,Dwi Agustian,Yessika Adelwin Natalia,Kozo Watanabe
Tropical Medicine and Health. 2021; 49(1)
[Pubmed] | [DOI]
8 Clinical and Laboratory Profile of Dengue Fever in Children in a Tertiary Care Centre in Mahabub Nagar, Telangana
Patta Nagaveni,Manthena Jagadeesh Kumar,Kolla Venkata Subbarao,Anupati Jyothi
Journal of Evidence Based Medicine and Healthcare. 2020; 7(15): 757
[Pubmed] | [DOI]
9 Epidemiological scenario of dengue in the state of Manipur during the last 3 years
Leimapokpam Shivadutta Singh,Rajkumar Manojkumar Singh,Huidrom Lokhendro Singh
PeerJ. 2020; 8: e8518
[Pubmed] | [DOI]
10 Dengue Seroprevalence and Seroconversion in Urban and Rural Populations in Northeastern Thailand and Southern Laos
Dyna Doum,Hans J. Overgaard,Mayfong Mayxay,Sutas Suttiprapa,Prasert Saichua,Tipaya Ekalaksananan,Panwad Tongchai,Md. Siddikur Rahman,Ubydul Haque,Sysavanh Phommachanh,Tiengkham Pongvongsa,Joacim Rocklöv,Richard Paul,Chamsai Pientong
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(23): 9134
[Pubmed] | [DOI]
11 Epidemiological, clinical and climatic characteristics of dengue fever in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan with implication for prevention and control
Chiu-Jung Chang,Colin S. Chen,Chien-Jung Tien,Mei-Rou Lu,Xia Jin
PLOS ONE. 2018; 13(1): e0190637
[Pubmed] | [DOI]



 

Top
 
 
  Search
 
Similar in PUBMED
   Search Pubmed for
   Search in Google Scholar for
 Related articles
Access Statistics
Email Alert *
Add to My List *
* Registration required (free)

 
  In this article
   Abstract
  Introduction
   Materials and me...
  Result
  Discussion
  Conclusion
   References
   Article Figures
   Article Tables

 Article Access Statistics
    Viewed20989    
    Printed482    
    Emailed1    
    PDF Downloaded1184    
    Comments [Add]    
    Cited by others 11    

Recommend this journal


[TAG2]
[TAG3]
[TAG4]