Clinical manifestations of dengue haemorrhagic fever in children in Bandung, Indonesia.

In order to decrease the mortality associated with dengue haemorrhagic fever early diagnosis and adequate case management are essential.

Abstract

To describe the clinical manifestations of dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) all children with a clinical diagnosis of DHF admitted to the paediatric ward of the Dr. Hassan Sadikin General Hospital (Bandung, Indonesia) between April 1st 1991 and September 30th 1993 were enrolled in a prospective study. Of the 306 children with a clinical diagnosis of DHF on admission in only 128 (41.8%) the diagnosis of DHF was confirmed by HI test. Of the confirmed cases, 24 (19%) developed shock and 1 (0.7%) died. Of the 174 cases with a negative HI test, 33 (19%) developed shock and 4 (2%) died. Four of the children died of shock before an hemagglutination inhibitor (HI) test was performed. The overall case mortality rate was 2.9%. The symptoms and signs of the 128 children with serologically confirmed DHF included fever or a history of fever (100%), petechiae (29.7%), epistaxis (39.1%), other forms of bleeding (5.5%), a positive Tourniquet test (78.1%), hepatomegaly (46.9%), epigastric pain (61.7%), vomiting (55.5%), thrombocytopenia < 100,000/mm3 (3.2% on admission and 15.3% during hospitalisation). Four (3%) children developed encephalopathy and 1 child an acute liver failure. In order to decrease the mortality associated with DHF early diagnosis and adequate case management are essential.