Dengue: guidelines for patient care in the Region of the Americas. 2. ed.

Abstract

[Foreword]. Faced with the complex situation caused by dengue in the Americas and around the world, in 2003 the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) developed the Integrated Management Strategy for Dengue Prevention and Control in the Americas (IMS-Dengue) in collaboration with its member countries in order to tackle the disease through these six components: laboratory, social communication, epidemiology, integrated vector management, environmental, and patient care. The Organization considers patient care to be a vital component and has made it a priority. The first edition of Dengue: guidelines for the care of patients in the Region of the Americas was published (in Spanish) in 2010, based on a WHO document published for the same purpose in 2009. Implementation of the first edition in the Americas was followed by extensive training of health care workers, specifically on timely diagnosis, classification, and case management, with an emphasis on primary care. Recent advances in diagnostic procedures and clinical management make it necessary to update the information on the care of patients with dengue. This second edition of Dengue: guidelines for patient care in the Region of the Americas includes information on the clinical manifestations of the disease, care and treatment, epidemiological surveillance, and laboratory diagnosis. It also includes new information on the reorganization of health services during outbreaks and epidemics, which will be very useful to health unit managers. The guidelines consider this continent’s experiences and are evidence-based at the highest scientific level. PAHO/WHO presents this second edition to countries and territories of the Americas at a time when other arboviral diseases (chikungunya and Zika) have been introduced into the Region. Therefore, it is essential to ensure accurate and timely diagnosis of dengue cases, as well as adequate clinical monitoring. These guidelines—an essential tool for health care workers to correctly manage the dengue cases that appear daily in our countries––seek to prevent the progression to the severe forms of dengue and deaths caused by the disease.