Duration of Fever in Patients with Dengue: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Gupta, N., et al. Am.J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 111(1), 2024, pp. 5–10. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.23-0542.
Abstract [Shortened]. There is a need to establish the average fever duration with a confidence interval among patients with dengue. Studies up to October 21, 2022 from two databases (PubMed and Embase) were included using the search terms related to dengue and duration of fever. Studies where the average duration of fever was available were included for systematic review. A total of 643 articles were included from the two databases after duplicate deletion. After two rounds of screening, 31 articles (n 57,905) were finally included. The mean duration of fever in the 20 articles included for meta-analysis was 5.1 (95% CI: 4.7–5.5) days. Longer duration of fever was seen in those with a higher grade of fever, those with higher disease severity, and those with concurrent bacterial infections.
Note: The is considerable overlap between the onset of febrile and viremia stages following dengue infection, especially as it relates to infectivity to mosquitoes [see ]. Most likely the onset of fever is the first indication of illness to the patient and may provide a ‘skeletal’ timeline for the 1st recognition of the onset of dengue viremia. As the time window is short, early detection and reporting are important for surveillance to detect infected Aedes and possible secondary infections.