Dengue virus

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Dengue is a Flavivirus and is a linear, enveloped, single stranded, positive sense, RNA virus. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection. This may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash. Recovery generally takes less than two to seven days. In a small proportion of cases, the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where dangerously low blood pressure occurs.