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Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease caused by dengue virus, prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas. It is frequently asymptomatic ; if symptoms appear, they typically begin 3 to 14 days after infection.
Dengue fever (UK: / ˈ d ɛ ŋ ɡ eɪ / or US: / ˈ d ɛ ŋ ɡ iː /), also known as breakbone fever, is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever , headache , myalgias and arthralgias , and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles .
Dengue virus (DENV) is the cause of dengue fever.It is a mosquito-borne, single positive-stranded RNA virus of the family Flaviviridae; genus Flavivirus. [1] [2] Four serotypes of the virus have been found, and a reported fifth has yet to be confirmed, [3] [4] [5] all of which can cause the full spectrum of disease. [1]
Most dengue fever patients recover in a week, but in severe cases the disease can be life-threatening and require hospitalization since it can result in shock, internal bleeding and even death.
By the late 1990s, dengue was the most important mosquito-borne disease affecting humans after malaria, with around 40 million cases of dengue fever and several hundred thousand cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever each year. Significant outbreaks of dengue fever tend to occur every five or six months.
A viral hemorrhagic fever is a possible cause of the Plague of Athens during the Peloponnesian War. [13] A viral hemorrhagic fever is an alternate theory of the cause of the Black Death and the Plague of Justinian [14] The initial, and currently only, outbreak of Lujo virus in September–October 2008 left four of five patients dead. [15]
Dengue fever is caused by infection through viruses of the family Flaviviridae. The illness is most commonly transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in tropical and subtropical regions. [58] Dengue virus has four different serotypes, each of which are antigenically related but have limited cross-immunity to reinfection. [59]
The test was once part of the World Health Organization (WHO) algorithm for diagnosis of dengue fever, [3] however it is no longer used in the latest WHO guidance. [4] Studies have shown that the tourniquet test has low predictive value for dengue fever and should be used in conjunction with other tests for a reliable diagnosis. [5] [6] [7] [8]