Maternal and fetal outcome of dengue fever during pregnancy

Abstract

Background & objectives: As adult dengue fever increases it also affects women with pregnancy. Dengue fever is mainly treated conservatively. However, complications like pre-eclampsia, pre-term labour, increased risk of caesarean section and fetal transmission have been noted. During dengue epidemic in our region we noted many women with dengue fever and observed certain different problems. Methods: A retrospective analysis of all pregnant women admitted in obstetric ward with dengue fever over a period of 18 months was done. Results: The striking feature observed was the presence of severe thrombocytopenia in 78.57% of the study population. In addition, coexistence of other vector borne diseases was also noted. Conclusion: Most cases only require conservative treatment. Only women who went into labour required platelet transfusion. Outcome seemed to correlate with gestational age of occurrence of dengue fever.