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Hao Zhang [1] and Zhiyi He [2] and Wenting Zeng [1] and Hong-Juan Peng [3]

Academic Editor: Maria L. Tornesello

1, Department of Infectious Diseases, The Key Discipline of Guangdong Province, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou Medical University, No. 151 Yanjiang Road, Guangdong Province 510120, China, gzhmc.edu.cn

2, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou Medical University, No. 151 Yanjiang Road, Guangdong Province 510120, China, gzhmc.edu.cn

3, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research and Key Laboratory of Prevention and Control for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Guangdong Higher Institutes, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Southern Medical University, No. 1023 South Shatai Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province 510515, China, fimmu.com

Received Jun 15, 2017; Revised Aug 1, 2017; Accepted Aug 6, 2017

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

1. Background

Dengue is a febrile disease that is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. It is estimated that approximately 3900 million people in 128 countries are at risk of infection by dengue viruses [1]. This virus infects approximately 390 million people per year, 96 million of whom present disease [2]. The causative agent of dengue is dengue virus (DENV), which belongs to the family Flaviviridae. The clinical phenotype of dengue varies from a self-limiting febrile illness to severe, occasionally life-threatening disease. Typically, symptomatic disease follows three phases: a febrile phase lasting 3 to 7 days; a critical phase characterized by defervescence, during which complications appear in a small proportion of patients; and a spontaneous recovery phase. Complications primarily affect the vascular system and include an unusual plasma leakage syndrome that may result in dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS), which are classified as severe dengue according to the WHO guidelines for dengue diagnosis, treatment, and prevention [3, 4].

In 2015-2016, Zika virus caused large outbreaks in Pacific areas and in Central and South America [5]. Increasing data have shown that Zika virus infection is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes such as fetal death, premature birth, and microcephalus [6]. Thus, DENV infection which belongs to the same family of...

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