EPIDEMIOLOGICAL AND CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF DENGUE IN DISTRICT PESHAWAR: A MULTI-CENTER STUDY

Dengue is a tropical infection caused by dengue virus. The current study aimed to characterize epidemiological, laboratory markers, and clinical features of dengue disease. For this purpose data was collected from Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), and Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) Peshawar. The data on clinical symptoms of patients was collected by filling out a questionnaire. The laboratory diagnosis was noted down from the Complete Blood Count Test of patients. In the present study in all 500 patients, the percentages of fever and body pain were 100% while headache was recorded in about 87% of patients. Among the laboratory diagnosis, 51% of males and 46.43% of females were recorded with normal blood pressure. Similarly, about 59% of male and 52% of female patients were recorded with platelet count below normal. In the majority of male and female patients (94.8%) the normal red blood cell level was recorded. The hemoglobin (Hb) level in most male patients (82.7%) and females (78.5%) was recorded between 14-17.5g/dl which lies in a normal range of Hb. Out of 500, most of the patients (48%) suffered from dengue infection for 7 days. The study concluded that dengue infection does not have much influence on blood pressure, white blood cell level, red blood cell level, or hemoglobin level of patients and was recorded with their normal ranges. However, the platelet level of an individual decreases with dengue infection. Moreover, the study observed that those people who spent more time outdoors had more chances to get dengue infection.