Report quantifies morbidity of dengue virus infection in Thai schoolchildren.(Brief Article)

2002 SEP 25 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - U.S. Armed Forces researchers have reported on morbidity arising from dengue virus infection in school children living in Kamphaeng Phet, Thailand.

"Dengue viruses are a major cause of morbidity in tropical and subtropical regions of the world," said Timothy P. Endy at the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences in Bangkok and his colleagues. "Knowledge about the epidemiology and host determinants of inapparent and severe dengue virus infections is limited."

Endy and his associates studied the prevalence of dengue virus from 1998-2000 in a cohort of 2119 elementary school children in the Kamphaeng Phet province of northern Thailand. The study period involved 717,106 child-school days.

From 1998 to 2000, incidence of both inapparent and symptomatic dengue virus infections dropped. Inapparent illness rates in 1998, 1999, and 2000 were 4.3%, 3.2%, and 1.4%, respectively. Symptomatic dengue virus infection rates for the same years were 3.6%, 3.3%, and 0.8%.

The authors report that the "early symptom complex of acute dengue virus infection is protean and difficult to distinguish from other causes of febrile childhood illnesses."

For the years 1998, 1999, and 2000, dengue virus illness comprises 3.2%, 7.1%, and 1.1%, respectively, of the total school absence rates due to ...