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[Dengue in New Caledonia. Study of 68 pediatric cases]
P Bourée1, A Lançon, R Anquetil
1Département des maladies parasitaires et tropicales, hôpital de Bicêtre, 78, rue du Général-Leclerc, 94275 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, France. patrice.bouree@bct.ap-hop-paris.fr
Unlabelled:
New Caledonia is a French territory of Pacific Ocean, where frequent dengue outbreaks occur. In 1995 and 1996, 3042 cases (including 18.3% children) were diagnosed in Pasteur Institute of Noumea.
Patients And Methods:
This work was a clinical and biological study of 68 in-patients of different ethnical groups in children. Among these young patients, 14 cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever occurred.
Results:
The children were admitted to hospital after an average of 2.7 days of complaint, and during 6.7 days. The most important symptoms were fever at 39 degrees C (100%) during 2.2 days, sweatings (100%), malaise (57%) and headache (50%). Forty children had, at least, one hemorrhagic symptom. Leucopenia was noticed in 42 children, on an average of 4.2 days. A thrombocytopenia (mean 114,746 platelets/mm3) occurred in 5.3 days in 34 children (six cases with less than 10,000 platelets/mm3). A bacterial infection arised in 23.5% of children.
Conclusion:
Dengue is an important problem of public health, which occurs in all population, including the young children. The fight against dengue fever by a rapid destruction of larvae and adult mosquitoes led to the decrease of the outbreak.