Introduction: Dengue virus infection is one of the most common causes of death in children. This is because the virus can cause severe manifestations, like bleeding and plasma leakage. Therefore, identifying the characteristics of DHF patients will significantly help the health care workers to make an early diagnosis and effective therapy, thus decreasing child mortality due to DHF.
Methods: This study was conducted in 2017 using a cross-sectional design. The samples of this study were DHF patients aged 0-18 years admitted at Atma Jaya Hospital in January-October 2016 (n = 108). Data was collected from the patients medical records.
Results: There were 108 children with DHF who underwent hospitalization at Atma Jaya Hospital. The sociodemographic characteristics of DHF patients were 52.8% male and 47.2% female, mostly occurred in the 2-12 age group (>50%), and lived in crowded areas (91.67%). The clinical manifestations that commonly occur were fever (100%), nausea (>90%), vomiting (>75%), myalgia and arthralgia (>60%), headache (>50%), gum bleeding (20%-50%), epistaxis (>15%). Complication that commonly occur was pleural effusion (25%-60%). Myocarditis are rarely found (<20%). The management of DHF at Atma Jaya Hospital were fluids resuscitation (crystalloid) (100%) or colloid (in DSS as much as >30%), inotropic drugs, and furosemide.
Conclusions: Knowing the characteristics of DHF patiens is important, because DHF can cause severe manifestations and complications, and it can help the health care workers to make an early diagnosis and treatment effectively. |