Dengue hemorrhagic fever

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Antibodies	Mosquito, adult	Mosquito, adult feeding on the skin	Mosquito, egg raft
Mosquito, larvae	Mosquito, pupa

Dengue hemorrhagic fever is a severe, potentially deadly infection spread by certain mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti ).

See also: Dengue fever

Hemorrhagic dengue; Dengue shock syndrome; Philippine hemorrhagic fever; Thai hemorrhagic fever; Singapore hemorrhagic fever

Four different dengue viruses have been shown to cause dengue hemorrhagic fever. This condition occurs when a person catches a different dengue virus after being infected by another type sometime before. Prior immunity to a different dengue virus type plays an important role in this severe disease.

Worldwide, more than 100 million cases of dengue fever occur every year. A small number of these develop into dengue hemorrhagic fever. Most infections in the United States are brought in from other countries. It is possible for a traveler who has returned to the United States to pass the infection to someone who has not traveled.

Risk factors for dengue hemorrhagic fever include having antibodies to dengue virus from prior infection and being younger than 12, female, or Caucasian.

Review Date: 11/27/2006
Reviewed By: D. Scott Smith, M.D., MSc, DTM&H, Chief of Infectious Disease & Geographic Medicine, Kaiser Redwood City, CA & Adjunct Assistant Professor, Stanford University. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.