Introduction:

Pediatric dengue continues to be a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality.

Objective:

Characterize the pediatric dengue epidemic in Guantánamo.

Methods:

An observational cross-sectional retrospective descriptive study was conducted of a universe of 150 confirmed cases attending Emilio Daudinot Bueno polyclinic from January 2018 to December 2019, contrasting the results obtained for those years. The variables considered were age group, sex, hospital stay in hours, clinical manifestations, warning signs and symptoms, and month of the year. Data were obtained from the epidemiological medical records of all the cases.

Results:

There was an increase in the number of confirmed cases in 2019 with respect to 2018. The most affected age groups were 5-9 years in 2018 (36.5 %) and 15-18 years in 2019 (30.2 %) in the male sex. Admission within 24 hours prevailed in both periods, with 73.1 % in 2018 and 47.7 % in 2019. Fever was the main clinical manifestation in both years, with 97.5 % and 92.0 %, respectively. The appearance of alarm signs in patients at the time of admission was more frequent during 2019 (81.5 %). The months with the highest number of confirmed cases during 2018 were September, July and October, which accounted for 69 %; in 2019 they were those of December, September and October with 60 %.

Conclusions:

The results obtained support the need to continue surveillance of dengue in children and provide the necessary knowledge for its prevention.

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