Clinical response in patients with dengue fever to oral calcium plus vitamin D administration: study of 5 cases.

A dengue epidemic is one of the most important public health problems in the tropical and subtropical areas of the World. In 2005, 7,062 dengue cases were reported in Tamaulipas on Mexico's eastern coast, including 1,832 (26%) cases classified as Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF). Dengue fever (DF) is characterized by fever, intense headache, myalgias, arthralgias, rash, nausea and vomiting.

Oral calcium administration attenuates thrombocytopenia in patients with dengue fever. Report of a pilot study.

Global climate change is one of the instigating and contributing factors for epidemic outbreaks of infectious diseases in human populations. In the years 2003 to 2005 the city of Tampico, in the northern state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, experienced recurrent outbreaks of dengue virus infections (DV) and the resulting dengue fever (DF). One of the hallmark symptoms of DF, which appears to worsen as the environmental temperature increases, is thrombocytopenia.