dengue

(deng’u: Spanish, dan’gwa) [Sp.]. An infectious, eruptive, febrile disease, coming on suddenly, and marked by severe pains in the head, eyes, muscles, and joints, sore throat, catarrhal symptoms, and sometimes a cutaneous eruption and painful swellings of the parts. The disease comes on suddenly after an incubation period of from three to six days. The symptoms increase in severity for two or three days, then decrease somewhat, only to increase again on the fourth or fifth day, at which time the eruption appears. It occurs epidemically and sporadically in India, Egypt, Persia, and the West Indies, and is thought to be transmitted by the mosquito, Culex fatigans. Called also breakbone fever, dandy fever, sun fever, and solar fever.