Dengue fever with neurologic expression. A report on three cases in adults.

Dengue fever, unlike most other arboviral diseases, does not usually cause encephalitis. However, neurologic symptoms with poor prognosis have been re gularly reported, mostly in Asian children affected by the severe dengue he morrhagic fever / dengue shock syndrome, and attributed to a non specific, anoxic or metabolic encephalopathy, Recently, first isolations of dengue vi ruses from CSF or brain tissue, have renewed this concept. We report 3 deng ue fever cases with neurologic manifestations and favorable outcome. Occurr ence in adult age, during classic (benign) dengue fever (2 cases), and neur ologic sequellae (1 case) were the three outstanding features. We point out the proteiform expression of these neurologic changes and their low incide nce rate (< 3 % in our series of adult dengue fever), Although their pathog enesis is poorly understood, different mechanisms are suggested: encephalop athy (case n degrees 1), acute specific encephalitis (questionable in case n degrees 2), or post-infective encephalitis (case n degrees 3).