Viraemia in patients with naturally acquired dengue infection

The magnitude and duration of dengue viraemia were studied in 153 patients with naturally acquired dengue infection in Jakarta, Indonesia. The duration of viraemia ranged from 2 to 12 days, but most patients had detectable circulating virus for 4-5 days. Accurate measurement of peak virus titres was not possible for many patients because of late admission to the hospital. Composite pictures of viraemia for each serotype, however, showed that many patients infected with dengue 1, 2, or 3 had circulating virus titres ranging from barely detectable to over 10(8) MID(50) per ml for 3-5 days. Virus titres in patients infected with dengue 4 were about 100-fold lower. Dengue haemagglutination-inhibition antibody titres of 80 or less had little effect on viraemia, but antibody titres of 160 or greater were associated with a decrease in virus isolation rate and in virus titre. The duration and magnitude of viraemia did not vary significantly with the severity of the disease and was only slightly higher in patients classified as primary dengue infections than in those classified as secondary infections. Measurement of viraemia in fatal dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) cases showed that these patients had significant quantities of circulating virus at the time of death.