An individual's first dengue infection typically produces mild symptoms. But later infections can lead to life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome, which are associated with internal bleeding and a dangerous reduction in the platelets that help blood clot. The challenge for health providers, especially those in countries where resources are scarce, is to rapidly identify patients at higher risk for complications.

In this study, researchers compared the height, weight and body-mass index (BMI) of three groups of children, ages 5 through 12. The groups were youngsters hospitalized for dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever who were compared with healthy classmates living in the same neighborhoods. BMI is a measurement of body mass based on a person's weight and height.

Those results were compared with an international sample of children of the same age compiled in the World Health Organization's standardized database. Roughly the same proportion of children in each of the study's groups qualified as either underweight, overweight or stunted, a possible sign of chronic malnutrition. There was also no difference in the average BMI of study participants, whether healthy or ill.

The study included 74 healthy children, 66 with dengue hemorrhagic fever and 62 with dengue fever. All were treated in El Salvador's only children's referral hospital, which is in the capital city San Salvador.

SOURCE St. Jude Children's Research Hospital