Dengue And Enteric Fever Co-infection : A clinician's Dilemma

Dr Nitul M Bewal; Dr PMP Singh; Dr Sukhmeet Minhas; Dr Vidhu Dangwal

Volume : IX, Issue : VI, June - 2020

Dengue And Enteric Fever Co-infection : A clinician's Dilemma

Dr Nitul M Bewal, Dr Pmp Singh, Dr Sukhmeet Minhas, Dr Vidhu Dangwal

Abstract :

Introduction The coinfection of Dengue and Enteric fever presents diagnostic as well as therapeutic dilemma for a clinician due to similarity in symptoms and requirements of additional laboratory tests and possible use of antibiotics in case of proven coinfection. This study was designed to find out the co- infection rates of dengue and enteric fever by using standard laboratory based tests. Material and Methods This is longitudinal descriptive study. A total 191 consecutive cases of Dengue fever admitted during Jan 2018 to Dec 2019 at our centre were studied. All the patients were tested by IgM card test for S. Typhi. Blood cultures were done only for those with a positive card test. Results: 23 out of 191 admitted dengue fever patients had positive IgM typhi card test. However, only 7 of these 23 patients had blood culture positive for Salmonella Typhi and needed appropriate antibiotics. The overall true Dengue Enteric fever coinfection rate was 3.66%. Average duration of feile phase in isolated dengue fever patients was 4.89 days. While the same for dengue-enteric coinfection was 7.91 days. All the patients recovered well without any fatality. Conclusion: While treating the dengue fever with prolonged feile phase, coinfection with enteric fever needs to be investigated and treated accordingly.