An Observational Study on Clinical, Epidemiological and Laboratory Profile in Patients of Dengue Fever Admitted to a Tertiary Care Hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal, India in the Year 2016

Dengue fever is an important viral hemorrhagic fever amongst the arthropod-borne virus illnesses. It is caused by arbo-virus of flavi virus genus with 4 serotypes. Its vectors are Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. A clinical manifestation ranges from undifferentiated fever to florid hemorrhage and shock. It depends on age of the patient, virus strain and immune status of the host. Clinically dengue fever is described as an acute febrile illness of 2-7 days duration with two or more of the following symptoms headache, retro-orbital pain, myalgia, arthralgia, rash, hemorrhagic manifestations [1]. Diagnosis of Dengue hemorrhagic fever is made when a case with clinical criteria of dengue fever presents with hemorrhagic tendencies evidenced by one or more of the following, a) positive tourniquet test b) petechiae, ecchymoses or purpura c) bleeding from mucosa, gastrointestinal tract, injection sites or other sites plus thrombocytopenia (<100 000 cells per cmm) plus evidence of plasma leakage due to increased vascular permeability, manifested by one or more of the following: 1) A rise in average hematocrit for age and sex≥20%, 2) A more than 20% drop in hematocrit following volume replacement treatment compared to baseline, 3) Signs of plasma leakage (pleural effusion, ascites, hypoproteinemia) [1].