STUDY OF DENGUE FEVER BETWEEN INFANTS (≤1 YEAR) AND OLDER CHILDREN (>1 YEAR) IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Abstract

BACKGROUND Dengue fever has been a common and fatal vector borne disease in tropical countries and is found to be present throughout the year and also to occur in epidemics. There has been very little information on dengue illness in infants; also, there are few efforts to compare the illness of infants and that of older children. We wanted to compare the clinical features of dengue fever including complications and outcome along with the laboratory parameters in infants with those of older children. METHODSThis is a retrospective cohort study. Case records of sero positive cases of dengue fever admitted to in the RESULTSA total of 31 infants (less than or equal to one year) with dengue fever, were compared with 80 older children (more than one year) with dengue fever. Mean age of infants was 5 months and that of older children was 9.2 years. Male to female distribution was 2:1.4 in infants, and 1.8:1 in older children. Symptoms like cough, coryza, diarrhoea, convulsions, flushing and reduced urine output, were more common in infants compared to older children, which was statistically significant (p<0.05). Hepatosplenomegaly, ascites, pleural effusion, petechiae, conjunctival haemorrhage were more common in infants which was statistically highly significant (p=0.000). Mean haematocrit value was significantly higher in infants compared to older children (p=0.000). Complications of dengue like dengue shock syndrome (DSS) and/or dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) were more common in infants as compared to older children (p<0.05). The time taken for recovery of platelet count to more than 100000/cumm, time taken to become afebrile, and duration of hospital stay, were longer in infants as compared to older children which was statistically highly significant (p= 0.000). CONCLUSIONSDengue infection in infants when compared with that of older children is more severe. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Machakanur V, Kamble M. Study of dengue fever between infants (≤1 year) and older children (>1 year) in a tertiary care hospital.