On 28 Sep 1995 jus...@centcon.com wrote:
> Could someone tell me the symptoms of the non-hemmhoragic strains of dengue? I'd be ever greatful. Thanks...
>
> Justin
>
Justin,
The description I'm about to quote was originally published in Health Notes
in 1922, and I received a copy of it from Promed:
"Dengue is an acute infectious, febrile disease. It is characterized by
fever, frequently by two paroxysms with an intermission, pains in the
joints and tendons, muscular soreness, and frequently accompanied by skin
eruption. The disease is self-limitted and rarely fatal."
I would add that the muskuloskeletal pains can be fairly impressive, and
are the reason this disease was once called "Break-Bone Fever". It is
spread by the bite of infected Aedes aegypti mosquitos, and comes in 4
serotypes. Immunity to any one of the 4 serotypes (by previous exposure)
does not confer protection against the other 3, and is in fact thought to
exacerbate the disease upon exposure to one of the other serotypes (a
phenomenon known as "immune enhancement" of disease). This is thought to
be one of the mechanisms by which simple dengue fever becomes dengue
hemorrhagic fever/shock syndrome (DHF/SS). To my knowledge, there are no
strains (ie, D1-D4) that specifically *cause* DHF/SS.
The etiologic agent of dengue fever is dengue virus, a member of the
flavivirus family. It is an enveloped, positive-sense single stranded
RNA containing virus. I believe that infectious molecular clones now
exist for all four serotypes.
Hope the info helps
Peter Charles, PhD
Department of Pathology (Neuropathology)
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
[SNIP]
>Immunity to any one of the 4 serotypes (by previous exposure)
>does not confer protection against the other 3, and is in fact thought to
>exacerbate the disease upon exposure to one of the other serotypes (a
>phenomenon known as "immune enhancement" of disease). This is thought to
>be one of the mechanisms by which simple dengue fever becomes dengue
>hemorrhagic fever/shock syndrome (DHF/SS). To my knowledge, there are no
>strains (ie, D1-D4) that specifically *cause* DHF/SS.
Several "risk factors" for DHF/DSS have been identified. Around 90% (?) of
haemorrhagic fever cases occur during secondary infections (hence the
immune enhancement theories), and a secondary infection with dengue 2 is
more likely to cause haemorrhagic fever than a secondary dengue 1, 3 or 4
infection. A number of other factors such as age, sex and immune status
have also been implicated.