Age distribution of dengue cases in southern Vietnam from 2000 to 2015

Abstract

Background Dengue is the most common vector-borne viral infection. In recent times, an increase in the age of cases with clinical dengue has been reported in the national surveillance system and published literature of Vietnam. This change not only alter the risk of transmission and disease burden in different populations but also will impact for prevention and control strategies. A retrospective study was conducted from 2000 to 2015 in 19 provinces of southern Vietnam to describe the changes in age distribution of dengue cases and circulating serotypes. Methodology/Principal findings The study is a time trend analysis of the data aggregated from the database of dengue surveillance system. The database consisted of clinically diagnosed and laboratory-confirmed cases of dengue in southern Vietnam from 2000 to 2015. In the study period, the mean age of dengue cases increased from 12.2 ± 8.8 years old (y/o) to 16.8 ± 13.3 y/o between 2000 and 2015. Majority of severe cases were observed in the age group of 5–9 y/o and 10–14 y/o. Overall, the mortality and case fatality rates (CFR) were lowest during 2010 to 2015, and all four serotypes of dengue were observed. Conclusions/Significance With the exception of severe form, the age distribution of clinical cases of dengue appears to be shifting towards older age groups. An increase in the mean age of clinical cases of dengue has been observed in southern Vietnam over the past decade, and the highest incidence was observed in age group of 5–14 y/o. All serotypes of dengue were in circulation.

Interactions between climate change, urban infrastructure and mobility are driving dengue emergence in Vietnam

“…In future, age-stratified incidence or seroprevalence surveys could provide additional evidence to further disentangle the drivers of these trends; relatively few such studies have been published over the last decade from Vietnam. Recent evidence is consistent with the patterns we observed (suggesting slight declines in transmission in the south 70 and increases in central areas 40 ), but inference of changing force of infection from age-stratified data is challenging 71 , highlighting this as an important future research area to understand dengue emergence trajectories in Vietnam.…”

Reduced protein-coding transcript diversity in severe dengue emphasises the role of alternative splicing

“…This elucidation holds the key to reducing fatality rates and developing cost-effective strategies to counter the rising epidemiological trends of dengue. This is of immense value in the tropical regions of the world, especially South Asia, in countries such as India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam ( 23 , 24 , 25 ). Integrative studies that combine clinical and host genome-level response (transcriptomic) are imperative in this context ( 26 ).…”

Dengue virus serotypes and related factors in children with dengue hemorrhagic fever in Southern Vietnam

“…A database of clinically diagnosed and laboratory-confirmed dengue fever cases in southern Vietnam from 2000 to 2015 noted, that the average age of dengue cases with hemorrhage increased from 12.2 ± 8.8 years old (compared to the previous year) to 16.8 ± 13.3 years old from 2000 to 2015. This observation was explained because the longer a person resides in a dengueendemic area, the higher the risk of dengue infection [15]. Additionally, a higher proportion of male patients were diagnosed with DHF (54.2%), resulting in a maleto-female ratio of 1.18:1.…”