Demographic and clinical features of suspected dengue and dengue haemorrhagic fever in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka, a region afflicted by an internal conflict for more than 30 years—a retrospective analysis

SummaryObjectivesThe aim of this study was to determine the demographic, clinical, and notification data of suspected dengue fever (DF) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) cases admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital, Sri Lanka.MethodsThe data were collected from bed head tickets of all patients presenting with clinically suspected DF/DHF from October 2009 to September 2010.ResultsA total of 1085 clinically suspected DF/DHF cases were identified, with high numbers occurring during December 2009 to March 2010. The majority of the reported patients were females (n = 550, 50.7%) and approximately three-quarters of the patients (n = 797, 73.5%) were adults. All had fever, but fever spikes were noted in only 129 cases (11.9%; 95% confidence interval (CI) 10.1–13.9%). Over 50% of cases had vomiting (95% CI 47.5–53.5%). Haemorrhages were noted in 266 (24.5%), with gum bleeding in 99 patients (37.2%). Low white blood cell and platelet counts were noted in 27.1% and 85.6% of cases, respectively. Of the 1085 cases, only 24 (2.2%) were screened for dengue IgM/IgG and only 458 cases (42.2%) were notified to the Epidemiology Unit, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka.ConclusionsThe absence of laboratory diagnosis and poor notification to the Epidemiology Unit were the major drawbacks noted.