Dengue in an area of the Colombian Caribbean - Revista Colombia Médica, Vol. 46, No. 1, 2015, pp. 3-7

    Dengue is a tropical infection that is caused by the bite of the Aedes aegyti mosquito vector.  In recent years, the incident of dengue is considerably on a rise around the world.  Many cases of dengue are underreported or misclassified. A recent estimate indicates that there are 390 million people being infected by dengue per year. Due to its high epidemiological and economic impact, dengue takes the fifth place in the list of unattended tropical disease.

    In Colombia, dengue is an endemic disease and the four serotypes (DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, and DENV-4) have been reported.  The study describes the frequency and severity of dengue in the department of Cordoba in Colombia’s Caribbean. Based on a retrospective study, two data sources, the database from the direction of health in Cordoba and clinical register of patients with hemorrhagic fevers and fevers of unknown origin were analyzed.

    Results stated that the mean incidence of dengue between 2003 and 2010 was 36.5 cases/105 inhabitants and the mean incidence of severe dengue was 4.7 cases/105 inhabitants (CI95%: 4.3–5.0). Mean mortality rate due to dengue was 0.3 cases/105 inhabitants.  One thing to note was a significant difference between the dengue cases found in urban and rural populations. Twenty-six point two percent of cases were in populations that had to affiliation to the health system

   The study summarizes that the incidence of cases summarized for health authorities is not consistent with the behavior of the diseases being transmitted by the vector. Corrections made for the sub-reporting shows results that are closer to reality, between 18.5 and 521.6 cases/ 10 inhabitants. Thus there was an observation of deficiencies in vector management where the etiological diagnosis is made in a low proportion. Furthermore, one could highlight that there is a problem of access to health care and quality of health services provided, as there is a low capacity for diagnosing and in treatment provided.