Dengue Fever Seroprevalence among Children Aged 0-5 Years at Paediatric University Hospital, Ouagadougou

Background: Dengue fever is a vector-borne disease that raises a major public health problem worldwide, particularly in Burkina Faso. The gold standard diagnosis is based on the research of viral RNA by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) during the first days, or the presence of specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) by serological tests or the isolation of the virus. Burkina Faso reported a localized outbreak of dengue fever in 2016. This study aimed to evaluate dengue fever seroprevalence among children aged 0-5 years.

Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study which covered the period from January 2016 to December 2019 and involved 621 suspected cases of children aged 0-5 years at the Charles de Gaulle University Paediatric Hospital in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from

Results: Of the suspected cases,189 were confirmed positive to dengue fever with a seroprevalence of 30.47%. Among positive cases, young children (1 to 29 months age group) were the most represented, with a sex ratio (M/F) of 1.15 in favor of males (53.44%) of dengue cases. Clinical symptoms were polymorphous. Fever (86.24%), algic syndrome (75.13%) and vomiting (46.03%) were the most frequent clinical manifestations. The majority of patients (28.57%) had positive IgG serology. The main biological feature was thrombocytopenia (26.50%), (p=0.039).

Conclusion: This study confirms the emergence of this disease in young children, as mentioned in previous studies. Improving the technical facilities in our hospitals, providing ongoing training for healthcare workers in the management of this disease and disseminating the national protocol for the management of dengue fever could improve the situation.

Keywords: Seroprevalence, Dengue Fever, Children, Burkina Fas.