Clinical manifestations of dengue haemorrhagic fever in children in Bandung, Indonesia

To describe the clinical manifestations of dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) all children with a clinical diagnosis of DHF admitted to the paediatric ward of the Dr. Hassan Sadikin General Hospital (Bandung, Indonesia) between April 1st 1991 and September 30th 1993 were enrolled in a prospective study. Of the 306 children with a clinical diagnosis of DHF on admission in only 128 (41.8%) the diagnosis of DHF was confirmed by HI test. Oi the confirmed cases, 24 (19%) developed shock and 1 (0.7%) died. Of the 174 cases with a negative HI test, 33 (19%) developed shock and 4 (2%) died. Four of the children died of shock before an hemagglutination inhibitor (HI) test was performed. The overall case mortality rate was 2.9%. The symptoms and signs of the 128 children with serologically confirmed DHF included fever or a history of fever (100%), petechiae (29.7%), epistaxis (39.1%), other forms of bleeding (5.5%), a positive Tourniquet test (78.1%), hepatomegaly (46.9%), epigastric pain (61.7%), vomiting (55.5%), thrombocytopenia <100 000/mm(3) (3.2% on admission and 15.3% during hospitalisation). Four (3%) children developed encephalopathy and 1 child an acute liver failure. In order to decrease the mortality associated with DHF early diagnosis and adequate case management are essential.