Analysis of epidemiological characteristics of dengue fever in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

• Main Authors: Chang -Chiu Jung, 張秋蓉
• Other Authors: Chien-Jung Tien
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/36592902629628390536

碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 生物科技系 === 102 === ABSTRACT Dengue fever is the most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral disease in the world. An estimated 50 million dengue infections occur annually in more than 100 endemic countries、including Taiwan. Dengue fever in Taiwan occurs mainly in Tainan、Kaohsiung and Pindong、particularly in Kaohsiung with the highest cases reported. In order to strengthen the control of spread of dengue fever、this study would like to analyze demographical characteristics、outbreak situations、medical receiving、symptoms and climate conditions of dengue cases in Kaohsiung、to establish major factors affecting outbreak and medical receiving of dengue cases、and to determine the relationships between outbreak and Symptoms of dengue cases. It is expecte that these information would help medical personnel make correct differential diagnosis of dengue fever during its spreading、increase notifying definitive diagnosis rate、shorten the time to give control strategy by the Health Office、and achieve the goal of early controlling dengue fever. The results by statistical analysis (SPSS ver. 18) found that the average 50.0% of reported cases were diagnosed as dengue cases in 2007-2011. Male and female cases were similar and over half of cases were older than 41 years old in 3322 dengue cases. Most of them lived in high-populated Sanmin and Lingya district of Kaohsiung city. Most domestic dengue cases occurred in October and November、while most dengue cases infected outside Taiwan (most cases were from Vietnam) occurred in July and August. The epidemic trend of dengue fever in Kaohsiung was that dengue virus was introduced by infected cases from the other countries in summer and spread until the end of winter. Male had more chances to go to epidemic countries for business and suffered dengue fever more easily than female. Most of cases were infected with type II dengue fever. Male suffered Type II and Type III dengue fever more easily than female. Most of cases belonged to typical dengue fever with only 36 cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever. The highest percentage of dengue cases has the symptom of high fever、followed by muscle ache. Symptoms of dengue cases with different ages and from different living areas are different. This might be because they were infected with different types of dengue fever. Therefore、it is necessary to diagnose dengue fever with both symptoms and other related tests. 80.1% of dengue cases were not notified at the first medication. Most of them went to the local clinic、indicating clinical doctors had low vigilance for dengue fever and diagnosed dengue fever as influenza due to similar symptoms between them. Thus、it is necessary to enhance propaganda of health education to clinical doctors. The highest percentage of dengue cases were notified and definitely diagnosed in four days after occurrence of symptoms. The number of days notified and definitely diagnosed after symptom occurrence decreased with years. It indicated that the time from occurrence of symptoms to notification decreased. This might be due to enhance propaganda of health education. The symptoms of dengue cases notified at the first medication were in the order: high fever、muscle ache、headache、anorexia and arthralgia. These symptoms could be used for diagnosing dengue fever. Correlation analysis found that the number of dengue cases correlated significantly with climatic factors (i.e. temperature、rainfall and humidity). This suggested that the climate conditions (hot and humic in summer) in Kaohsiung、Taiwan is suitable for the growth of mosquitoes and suitable growth conditions for mosquitoes determined the spread of dengue fever. Keywords: Dengue fever、epidemic trend、Symptom、Notify、Climate