CHAPTER XLIII 



DENGUE AND ALLIED FEVERS 



Dengue — Seven days' fever — Dengue-like fevers — References. 

 DENGUE. 



Synonyms. — Febris Endemica cum Roseola, Exanthesis Athrosia, Knok- 

 kelkoorts, Arthrodynie, Fievre Rouge, and probably the ' seven days' fever.' 



There are upwards of one hundred known synonyms for this fever, many 

 of which refer to it as a form of rheumatism, or give it fanciful terms, such as 

 ' breakbone ' or ' breakheart,' ' broken wing ' or ' giraffe fever.' It is some- 

 times called ' three days' fever,' a term by which pappataci fever is also 

 known . 



The word ' dengue ' is said by Vambery to be of Arabic origin, and to mean 

 weakness, but it might equally be of East African, Indian, or Spanish origin. 



Definition. — ^Dengue is a term covering one or more acute specific 

 non-contagious fevers of unknown origin, but caused by a virus 

 contained in the blood. It is characterized by two febrile paroxysms, 

 separated by an intermission or remission, without jaundice, albu- 

 minuria, or haemorrhages, and with a marked leucopenia, and a pulse 

 which varies directly with the temperature. It is spread by the 

 agency of Stegomyia calopus Meigen, 1818, and probably by Cnlex 

 fatigans Wiedemann, 1828. 



History. — It appears to have been first recognized at Batavia, in 

 Java, in the year 1779, by Bylon, though it may have been noted 

 by Pazzio previous to this in 1764-68 in an epidemic in Seville. 

 It was soon discovered in other places, being found from 1779 to 

 1780 in Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and North America, and in 1784 in 

 Spain, to which it appears to have come from the West Indies, and 

 in 18 18 in Peru. In 1824-28 it occurred all over the tropical and 

 subtropical zones, and in 1830-70 it formed a series of large and 

 small epidemics in the same regions. From 1871-73 there was 

 an epidemic implicating East Africa, Egypt, Arabia, India, Burma, 

 Indo-China, and China, and spreading later to America and North 

 and West Africa — i.e., practically to all the tropical regions. In 

 1876-88 it was epidemic in Hong Kong, Egypt, Syria, and the 

 Mediterranean, and in the Fiji Islands in 1885, to which it was 

 conveyed by a European suffering from the complaint. In 1889 

 it was especially prevalent in Asia Minor, Turkey, and Greece. 

 From 1890 to 1895 there were outbreaks in Senegambia and Hong 

 Kong, and in 1894 it was introduced into North Queensland. From 

 1895-96 there were epidemics in Bombay and in Charleston. In 



1244 



