Unsuspected dengue and acute febrile illness in rural and semi-urban southern Sri Lanka.
Dengue virus (DENV), a globally emerging cause of undifferentiated fever, has been documented in the heavily urbanized western coast of Sri Lanka since the 1960s. New areas of Sri Lanka are now being affected, and the reported number and severity of cases have increased. To study emerging DENV in southern Sri Lanka, we obtained epidemiologic and clinical data and acute- and convalescent-phase serum samples from patients >2 years old with febrile illness. We tested paired serum samples for DENV IgG and IgM and serotyped virus by using isolation and reverse transcription PCR. We identified acute DENV infection (serotypes 2, 3, and 4) in 54 (6.3%) of 859 patients. Only 14% of patients had clinically suspected dengue; however, 54% had serologically confirmed acute or past DENV infection. DENV is a major and largely unrecognized cause of fever in southern Sri Lanka, especially in young adults.
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA. mreller1@jhmi.edu
Megan E
ME
Reller
Champika
C
Bodinayake
Ajith
A
Nagahawatte
Vasantha
V
Devasiri
Wasantha
W
Kodikara-Arachichi
John J
JJ
Strouse
Anne
A
Broadwater
Truls
T
Østbye
Aravinda
A
de Silva
Christopher W
CW
Woods
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003715:Dengue / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D003716:Dengue Virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D058889:Molecular Typing; D012424:Rural Population; D012703:Serotyping; D013188:Sri Lanka / Q000453:epidemiology; D013383:Suburban Population; D055815:Young Adult
D000914:Antibodies, Viral