An outbreak of dengue fever in St. Croix (US Virgin Islands), 2005.
BACKGROUND
Periodic outbreaks of dengue fever occur in the United States Virgin Islands. In June 2005, an outbreak of dengue virus (DENV) serotype-2 with cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) was detected in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. The objective of this report is to describe this outbreak of DENV-2 and the findings of a case-control study examining risk factors for DHF.


RESULTS
This is the largest dengue outbreak ever recorded in St. Croix, with 331 suspected dengue cases reported island-wide during 2005 (62.2 cases/10,000 population); 54% were hospitalized, 21% had at least one hemorrhagic manifestation, 28% had thrombocytopenia, 5% had DHF and 1 patient died. Eighty-nine laboratory-positive hospitalized patients were identified. Of these, there were 15 (17%) who met the WHO criteria for DHF (cases) and 74 (83%) who did not (controls). The only variable significantly associated with DHF on bivariate or multivariable analysis was age, with an adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 1.033 (1.003,1.064).


CONCLUSIONS
During this outbreak of DENV-2, a high proportion of cases developed DHF and increasing age was significantly associated with DHF.
Dengue Branch, Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, San Juan, Puerto Rico. hamohammed@rossvet.edu.kn
Hamish
H
Mohammed
Mary
M
Ramos
Julie
J
Armstrong
Jorge
J
Muñoz-Jordán
Kathleen O
KO
Arnold-Lewis
Aurimar
A
Ayala
Gary G
GG
Clark
Eugene S
ES
Tull
Mark E
ME
Beatty
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003715:Dengue / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006801:Humans; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014767:United States Virgin Islands / Q000453:epidemiology