RESUMO
Emerging picture of hantavirus infection in the South America is charac-terized by greater proportion of childhood infection and wider spectrum of diseasefrom mild asymptomatic to lethal cardiopulmonary disease. Barbados is endemic fordengue and leptospirosis, both of which share clinical features with hantavirus infec-tion and in many cases neither of these diagnosis could be confirmed. We investigatewhether some of the children hospitalized with suspected dengue could indeedhave been hantavirus infections. In this prospective study children hospitalized withsuspected dengue were tested for hantavirus infection using ELISA for the IgM anti-bodies. Thirty-eight children tested positive for hantavirus infection. They presentedwith fever, headache and mild respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms and signs.None of them had features suggestive of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome.Blood count values ranged from low to normal to high for their age. There were nodeaths. Hantavirus infection is prevalent in this Caribbean country. It predominantlypresents with milder disease and is responsible for some of the nonspecific febrileillnesses in children
RESUMO
Long-term seroprevalence studies of dengue have provided a measure of the degree of endemicity and future trends in disease prevalence and severity. In this study, we describe the seroprevalence of dengue antibodies in febrile persons with suspected acute dengue in Barbados. It is a retrospective population-based study of all febrile persons with suspected dengue from 2006 to 2013. All of the cases had IgM and IgG antibodies in the blood sample drawn between days 3 and 5 of their illness. Among the 8296 cases that were tested for IgM antibodies, 3037 [36.6%] had recent dengue infection. In the age groups <5 years, 5-20 years and >20 years, 23.3%, 39.6% and 35.5% had acute infection, respectively. Of the 7227 cases with documented IgG results, 5473 [75.7%] were positive and had a past infection. In the age groups <5 years, 5-20 years and >20 years, 31.2%, 65.2% and 86.6%, respectively, had a past infection [IgG positive]. During the first 5 years of life, 10-20% of febrile persons investigated for dengue had a positive IgM and a negative IgG titer, between 5 and 10% had a positive IgM and IgG titer, 5% had a positive IgG and a negative IgM titer, and between 45% and 65% had a negative IgM and a negative IgG titer. Throughout the study period, between 12% and 20% of febrile persons failed to show any evidence of current or previous dengue. In the age groups <5 years, 5-20 years and >20 years, 45.0%, 18.8% and 7.2%, respectively, had no evidence of recent or past dengue [both IgM and IgG negative]. Between 37% and 59% of the febrile persons had serological evidence of past dengue in the absence of any current dengue. In conclusion, the pattern of IgG antibodies in this study was comparable to those in countries known to be hyperendemic for dengue. The age of infection is likely to shift to younger adults and children who are more likely to have severe dengue in the future