Imported tropical virus infections in Germany

Abstract

Our routine tests for tropical viruses document that several hundreds of Dengue fever cases are imported into Germany every year. In contrast, hemorrhagic fever cases are rarely diagnosed in Germany. Our investigations suggest that this low number is due to the different living conditions of the local population in the tropics compared with that of travellers from Europe or North America. Improved methods for detecting Dengue virus infections, e.g. three different antibody tests and the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for detection of viral RNA, have been developed.