Introduction:

Dengue is a viral endemic reemerging infection of remarkable preponderance for its morbidity and mortality whose incidence has multiplied in the last times at international level.

Objectives:

To characterize patients with dengue according to the classification reviewed by the Health World Organization and to determine the correspondence between this and the traditional classification regarding the seriousness of the cases.

Methods:

A descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out at Pedro Kourí Tropical Medicine Institute in Havana during 2012, in which 247 medical records were reviewed selected by stratified random sampling.

Results:

In the case material there was a prevalence of dengue with alarm signs, 40-59 age group, female sex and the shock syndrome due to dengue as the main clinic form of seriousness. The fever was present in all those affected; migraine, asthenia, artromialgias, exanthema and retroocular pain were also outstanding. The leukopenia and thrombocytopenia constituted very frequent findings, the same as hepatic cytolysis; as long as, the digestive and hemorrhagic manifestations, among others, were significantly associated with the development of serious dengue.

Conclusions:

It was evidenced that using the traditional classification the identification and appropriate treatment to patients with serious dengue and dengue with alarm signs would not be possible, when being classified most of these as fever of the dengue, underestimating this way the clinical seriousness of these cases.

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