Abstract
Dengue fever is the most common arthropod borne disease of human in the tropical and subtropical regions.1 It is caused by the dengue virus, a Flavivirus, and is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. It is an endemic disease in India and the latest outbreak occurred in 2012 during which a total of 47,029 cases of dengue fever was reported.2 According to a multinational study, the number of infections stood at 390 million a year and India had the highest burden, accounting for about a third of the world’s cases.3 Dengue has seen a global resurgence recently despite extensive control efforts. Ocular involvement in dengue fever has been reported in many studies. Subconjunctival petechial haemorrhage, secondary to marked thrombocytopenia, is the most common ocular involvement as reported in an East Indian population.4 However patients may present during recovery phase i.e. one week after the onset of fever with a sudden loss of vision or a central scotoma. These manifestations are due to involvement of the retinal and/or choroidal circulation, with a predilection for the macular area. The main findings of dengue maculopathy are retinal haemorrhage, venular sheathing, yellow subretinal dots, retinal pigment epithelium mottling, foveolitis, disc hyperaemia and disc oedema. Neurosensory retinal detachment is seen in 15% of eyes with retinal vascular leakage.1 Optic neuritis is another important ocular involvement in patients of dengue fever, which may be unilateral or bilateral.5 Japanese encephalitis (JE), a leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia, is an endemo-epidemic disease in some regions in India. It is a vector-borne viral disease caused by Flavivirus. JE is the only virus so far confirmed to cause epidemics of encephalitis in India.6 It has a high mortality rates and usually affects children below 10 years of age. Ocular manifestations are not common. But cases have been reported with ocular palsy, papilloedema and ischaemic maculopathy during recovery stage. A case of optic neuritis has been reported three weeks after an attack of serologically positive JE.7
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