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.
MeSH terms
-
Animals
-
Antibodies, Viral / blood
-
Dengue / diagnosis
-
Dengue / epidemiology*
-
Dengue / transmission*
-
Disease Reservoirs
-
Disease Vectors
-
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
-
Europe
-
Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect
-
Germany / epidemiology
-
Guinea / epidemiology
-
Humans
-
Incidence
-
Insect Vectors
-
Lassa Fever / diagnosis
-
Lassa Fever / epidemiology
-
Lassa Fever / transmission
-
North America
-
Polymerase Chain Reaction / methods
-
Prevalence
-
RNA, Viral / analysis
-
Rodentia
-
Sensitivity and Specificity
-
Travel*
-
Tropical Climate
-
Virus Diseases / diagnosis
-
Virus Diseases / epidemiology*
-
Virus Diseases / transmission*
Substances
-
Antibodies, Viral
-
RNA, Viral