Increasing the Awareness of Under-Diagnosed Tropical Cases of Dengue in Romania

Abstract

Global travelling increases every year and according to a report released during the COVID-19 pandemic by the UN World Tourism Organization, international travel doubled in 2022, compared to levels in 2021. his fact led also to travel-imported cases of arboviral infections and physicians are often confronted with tropical diseases, such as dengue or chikungunya. Since there is are no pathognomonic cues for these tropical illnesses, early diagnosis is still a big challenge and it depends on many factors, such as exposure risk factors, the epidemiological context, the incubation period, and the wide spectrum of differential diagnoses, including cosmopolitan or exotic infections. Since the clinical presentation of dengue is not typical and there are other febrile illnesses similar to arboviral diseases, misdiagnosis is common even among experienced doctors. Differential diagnosis needs up to date knowledge considering the short viraemic period, the antibody cross-reactivity, and the traps in recognising the nonspecific symptom picture. We present two cases of Dengue diagnosed in Romania which were initially clinically misconstrued, despite the characteristic symptom picture. The main purpose is to increase the level of awareness and to underline the difficulties that clinicians face in recognizing travel-related imported dengue virus disease.

Keywords

• arbovirus
• dengue fever
• travel imported illness
• imported febrile illness
• tropical disease awareness