Age and clinical dengue illness

Abstract

The relationship between age and risk for classic dengue fever has never been quantified. We use data from clinical patients to show that the relative risk of having classical disease after primary dengue virus infection increases with age. This relationship has implications for strategies aimed at controlling dengue fever.

Figure

Estimated minimum proportion of the population, by age, with laboratory-confirmed classical dengue, showing exact 95% binomial confidence intervals. A) Fitting a logistic regression model (not shown) to the absolute proportion produced a significant age estimate: McFadden R² = 0.762, χ² = 5,196.13, df = 1, p<0.001. B) Relative risk, by age, of having classical dengue after primary infection. Black circles, observed; line, model fit. See text for details of statistical analysis.