[Dengue fever among 44 Danish travellers investigated in the department of epidemics at the Rigshospitalet during 1988-1998].

Dengue fever is a major cause of febrile illness in the tropics, and we describe 44 patients with dengue fever seen at Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen from 1988-98. A worldwide increase in transmission of dengue fever was reflected in the number of patients seen in 1997-1998. All patients had fever and headache, and were biochemically characterised by thrombocytopenia, leucopenia, increased levels of alanine aminotransferase and a rise in haematocrit. One patient had dengue haemorrhagic fever, and two patients exhibited unusual reactions to the infection, one in the form of extended febrile neutropenia complicated by an episode of of E. coli septicaemia, and one patient developed progressive paralysis of both legs, and remains partially paretic.