Sapporo Medical Journal

Abstract : Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) is an endemic disease affecting tropical countries. When there is a change in predominating serotype, large outbreaks will occur. In Vietnam, there has been a significant increase in the number of DHF cases in 2022. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate whether there have been any changes in the distribution of dengue serotypes and the severity of DHF among children in Vietnam. This case series report was conducted at Children's Hospital 1 at Ho Chi Minh City from June 2022 to September 2022. Patients enrolled in the study were diagnosed with DHF based on WHO 2009 criteria and had positive RT-rPCR dengue results. Among 180 children enrolled in the study, 120 cases (66.7%) were caused by DENV-2, 58 (32.2%) by DENV-1, and 2 (1.1%) by DENV-4. The severity of disease varied, with the highest magnitude being DHF with warning signs (42.8%), followed by severe DHF (30.0%), and DHF (27.2%). DENV-2 infection was associated with more severe manifestations in terms of hemoconcentration (p=0.001), thrombocytopenia (p<0.001), abdominal pain (p=0,009), hepatomegaly (p=0,001). DENV-2 infection was more likely to result in shock compared to DENV-1 (p=0.036). DENV-2 was the predominating serotype, children infected with DENV-2 typically exhibited more severe manifestations compared to DENV-1. The relationship between shock, abdominal pain, hepatomegaly, hemoconcentration, thrombocytopenia, and dengue serotypes are statistically significant.