Zahid Fida, Zahidullah Khan, Abidullah Khan, Hamza Khan, Faiz-ur Rehman.
Outcome of patients with dengue fever.
Gomal J Med Sci Jan ;14(3):137-40.

Background: Incidence of dengue has risen drastically around the world in the recent years. Severe dengue is one of the causes of critical illness and death in Asia generally and Pakistan particularly. The objective of this study was to evaluate the death related outcome of patients with dengue fever. Material & Methods: This cross-sectional study included 300 patients admitted to Khyber Teaching Hospital with dengue fever. Patient’s outcome was measured in terms of death or recovery. Chi square test was used for statistical analysis. Results: The mean age of dengue patients was 30.60±9.70 years and the mean hospital stay 5.7±0.83 days. Among these 277(92.3%) were males and 23(7.7%) females with a male to female ratio of 12:1. Platelet transfusion was needed in 16(5.3%) patients. Outcome assessment revealed that, 294(98%) patients recovered while 6(2%) died. Death was more prevalent in females than in males at a statistically significant level (p=0.01). Moreover, the clinical presentation and patient’s locality did not affect the final outcome (p>0.05). Age of patients did not predict total hospital stay (p=0.07). However, hospital stay correlated positively and inversely with admission alanine aminotrensferase, and platelets count respectively (p<0.001). Conclusion: Most of the patients recover from dengue fever. Majority of deaths are seen in female patients. Moreover, platelet count and alanine aminotrensferase levels on admission predict the hospital stay.

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