TY - JOUR T1 - Diagnosis of dengue fever in North West Italy in travelers from endemic areas: a retrospective study. AU - Burdino,Elisa, AU - Milia,Maria Grazia, AU - Sergi,Giuseppina, AU - Gregori,Gabriella, AU - Allice,Tiziano, AU - Cazzato,Maria Lucia, AU - Lucchini,Anna, AU - Lipani,Filippo, AU - Calleri,Guido, AU - Orofino,Giancarlo, AU - Di Perri,Giovanni, AU - Ghisetti,Valeria, Y1 - 2011/06/01/ PY - 2011/01/12/received PY - 2011/04/09/revised PY - 2011/05/07/accepted PY - 2011/6/4/entrez PY - 2011/6/4/pubmed PY - 2011/10/28/medline SP - 259 EP - 63 JF - Journal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology JO - J Clin Virol VL - 51 IS - 4 N2 - BACKGROUND: Domestic outbreaks of Dengue (DENV) fever from imported cases have to be considered a possible risk in non-endemic countries where Dengue vectors are present, such as in Italy. OBJECTIVE: To review imported acute/recent DENV infections in a one-year survey in a North West Italy region where the presence of Aedes albopictus is documented. STUDY DESIGN: We retrospectively reviewed laboratory and clinical records of Italian febrile travelers from Dengue endemic areas referring to the local reference Centre for Infectious Disease, covering a population of about 4 million people. RESULTS: Acute/recent DENV infection was identified in 15 out of 91 travelers from endemic areas (16.5%) including 12 primary and 3 secondary infections; in 6 patients the virus was detectable in blood according to molecular real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction-based assays: in 9 patients the diagnosis of DENV infection was accomplished by the combination of specific IgM reactivity, high IgG titers, IgG seroconversion from negative to positive and increasing (four-fold) IgG titers in paired serum samples. Two cases of DENV infections were imported from South Egypt in patients travelling together, confirming the importance of returning travelers as sentinels of a rapidly changing epidemiology in specific geographic areas. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings outline the high rate of imported Dengue infection in North West Italy and emphasize the need for a continued Dengue surveillance in non-endemic countries as well as a careful evaluation and follow-up of febrile patients returning from Dengue endemic countries. SN - 1873-5967 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/21636317/Diagnosis_of_dengue_fever_in_North_West_Italy_in_travelers_from_endemic_areas:_a_retrospective_study_ L2 - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1386-6532(11)00183-1 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -