Dengue fever in patients admitted in tertiary care hospitals in Pakistan

Objectives: to assess the gaps in the diagnosis and management of dengue fever cases.methods: the retrospective descriptive analytical study was done with a case record analysis of patients with dengue fever admitted from january to december 2010 at five tertiary care hospitals in different pakistani cities. using a questionnaire, information was gathered on demography, haematological profile, management, use of blood and platelet transfusions and the outcome. for comparison, data of serologically-confirmed dengue patients from a private laboratory in islamabad was collected to see the age, gender and month-wise distribution of cases tested over the same period. spss 16 was used for statistical analysis.results: out of the 841 confirmed dengue cases, 514 (79%) were males and 139 (21%) females. the overall mean age was 31.3±14.0 years. dengue fever was seen in 653 (78%) and dengue haemorrhagic fever (dhf) in 188 (22%) patients. most cases were between 20 and 49 years of age. a gradual increase in dengue fever and dengue haemorrhagic fever was seen from august, with a peak in october/november.tourniquet test was done only in 20 (2.3%) cases, out of which 11 (55%) were positive and 9 (45%) were negative. serial haematocrit was not done in any case. total deaths were 5 (0.6%).conclusions: most cases were seen in october/november with the majority being in the 20-39 age group. tourniquet test and serial haematocrit were infrequently used. no standard national guidelines were employed.