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Pneumonia in Tropical Arbovirus Infection: An Issue in Tropical Respiratory Medicine

Viroj Wiwanitkit

Viroj Wiwanitkit, Honorary professor, Dr DY Patil University, Pune, India; adjunct professor, Joseph Ayobabalola University, Nigeria; visiting professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Nis, Serbia; visiting professor, Hainan Medical University, China

Conflict-of-interest statement: The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http: //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Correspondence to: Viroj Wiwanitkit, Professor, Wiwanitkit House, Bangkhae, Bangkok Thailand.
Email: wviroj@yahoo.com
Telephone: +6624132436

Received: October 5, 2018
Revised: November 18, 2018
Accepted: November 21, 2018
Published online: December 21, 2018

ABSTRACT

The tropical arbovirus infection is the present public health in several countries. The clinical manifestation of tropical arbovirus infection is various, however, the common presentation is the acute febrile illness. The respiratory problem relating to tropical arbovirus infection is very interesting. In the present editorial the clinical interrelationship between pneumonia and important tropical arbovirus infection is summarized and discussed.

Key words: Pneumonia; Arbovirus; Infection

© 2017 The Author(s). Published by ACT Publishing Group Ltd. All rights reserved.

Wiwanitkit V. Pneumonia in Tropical Arbovirus Infection: An Issue in Tropical Respiratory Medicine. Journal of Respiratory Research 2018; 4(1): 140-141 Available from: URL: http//www.ghrnet.org/index.php/jrr/article/view/2441

INTRODUCTION

The tropical arbovirus infection is the present public health in several countries. The clinical manifestation of tropical arbovirus infection is various, however, the common presentation is the acute febrile illness. The respiratory problem relating to tropical arbovirus infection is very interesting. In the present editorial the clinical interrelationship between pneumonia and important tropical arbovirus infection is summarized and discussed.

DENGUE AND PNEUMONIA

Dengue is an important tropical arbovirus infection caused by dengue virus. The infection can lead to the acute febrile illness. The thrombocytopenia due to dengue infection is an important clinical problem that might lead to severe form of dengue, the dengue hemorrhagic fever. In the most serious form, the shock can be seen and the mortality in dengue shock syndrome is high[1]. The expansion of dengue endemic area becomes important global public health issue in the present day.

Basically, dengue might result in several atypical clinical presentations but respiratory presentation is uncommon. Dengue cannot cause pneumonia but it might occur with pneumonia. In severe infection, the critically ill dengue patients might have pneumonia as complication and the high mortality is common in those patients[2-3]. Some patients might have both pneumonia and dengue and this problem might be difficult for diagnosis. The Staphylococcus pneumonia is reported for concurrence with dengue[4-5]. Cavity lesion is generally observed in those dengue with concurrent Staphylococcus pneumonia. Sometimes, dengue might co-occur with other infection and might further lead to the exacerbation of pneumonia. The coinfections with influenza or Mycoplasma pneumonia are the good example[6-7]. Of interest, the co-infection with dengue might result in immunoaberration that leads to immunocompromised status. There is also a report on a non-HIV infected case with dengue that finally developed pneumocystis pneumonia[8].

YELLOW FEVER AND PNEUMONIA

Chikungunya virus infection is an important tropical arbovirus infection. The disease has similar clinical feature to dengue but the patient usually have joint pain. Chikungunya virus generally does not cause pneumonia. However, in a recent report from Réunion, Economopoulou et al reported pneumonia as an atypical clinical presentation in Chikungunya virus infection[9]. Similar to dengue, pneumonia is an important complication in patients with severe Chikungunya virus infection[10]. In a recent report from Mayotte, 2.6 % of severe cases had pneumonia[11].

CHIKUNGUNYA VIRUS INFECTION AND PNEUMONIA

Yellow fever is an important arbovirus infection seen in tropical Africa and South America. The disease can cause severe illness with neurological complication. The prevention of this disease is possible by vaccination. The yellow fever virus cannot directly cause pneumonia but pneumonia is an important complication in severe yellow fever. Similar to the observation in severe dengue, the complicated pneumonia is an important cause of death in patients infected with yellow fever[11].

CONCLUSION

There is an interrelationship between pneumonia and tropical arbovirus infection. The concurrent infection between arbovirus infection and pneumonia is possible. Also, in severe arbovirus infection, pneumonia is an important clinical complication in the patient and might be the cause of death. Conclusively, pneumonia in arbovirus infection is clinically observable as a) a clinical problem in severe form of arbovirus infection (as a consequence of direct lung damage by the virus or toward a dysregulated immunologic response) or b) a secondary bacterial infection.

REFERENCES

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Peer Reviewer: Simone Gattarello

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