Abstract
Dengue cases have increased in younger age groups in Brazil. Maternal anti-dengue antibodies can have a protective effect in the first months of life, but their decline can increase the risk of severe dengue. A prospective birth cohort was established in 2011-2012 in the city of Recife, Pernambuco State, Brazil, to determine the incidence of serotype-specific dengue infection and the kinetics of transferred maternal anti-dengue antibodies in the first years of life. This article describes the design, methods and preliminary results of this cohort study. 354 children underwent clinical and laboratory monitoring for two years, with 15% losses to follow-up. The overall rate of new infections was approximately 10% in the first year of follow-up. Information on the force of serotype-specific dengue infection and the evaluation of transferred maternal antibodies can contribute to understanding dengue etiopathogenesis.
Highlights
MethodsDengue fever, caused by exposure to the dengue virus (DENV), is a serious and growing public health problem worldwide, amongst those residing in urban areas of tropical and subtropical countries 1
It has been postulated that an immunological window characterized by subneutralizing levels of transplacentally transferred maternal anti-DENV antibodies is involved in the development of severe dengue in infants [4,5,6]
We identified children infected with DENV-1 (n = 5), DENV-2 (n = 2), DENV-3 (n = 2) and DENV-4 (n = 6) by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in the first year of the cohort
Summary
MethodsDengue fever, caused by exposure to the dengue virus (DENV), is a serious and growing public health problem worldwide, amongst those residing in urban areas of tropical and subtropical countries 1. There is a need to better understand – e.g., via birth cohort studies – dengue incidence, the kinetics of transplacentally transferred maternally anti-DENV antibodies and their relationship to the duration of protection against dengue in children in the Brazilian context.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
