CLINICAL AND EPIDEMIOLOGIC FEATURES ASSOCIATED WITH DENGUE-2 VIRUS-INFECTION IN SENEGAL

The authors present the historical, clinical and epidemiological data associated with dengue virus infection in Africa. They enumerate the locations, hosts and circumstances of the isolation of different african strains, and describe a cycle of dengue 2 virus in the wild. The isolation of two human strains during the 1990 epizootic outbreak suggests a sylvatic cycle. These are the first two reported cases of isolation of dengue virus from humans concomitant with mosquitoes in Senegal. Clinically, these two cases presented with only minor symptoms and without shock or hemorrhage, emphasizing the attenuated pathogenicity of the dengue 2 virus in Senegal as in other african countries. Recent molecular epidemiological works showed genotypic differences between these african strains and those encountered in the Pacific and the Caribbean.