Test can predict severe dengue infection, study finds

Researchers have created a test that can predict which dengue patients will likely have mild symptoms and which should be clinically monitored for a high risk of severe illness. Most of the about 390 million people infected with the dengue virus every year are asymptomatic or have few symptoms. But for the approximately 5% of people who progress to severe disease, the consequences can be life-threatening. Yet clinicians have struggled to pinpoint who is at risk of progressing to this stage. Now, a team led by Stanford Medicine researchers has identified a set of genes that can predict with striking accuracy people who are at high risk of severe dengue, complications of which include shock, bleeding, organ injury and sometimes death. The results, published online March 28 in Genome Medicine, show that a readout of the activity of eight genes linked to the immune system can flag which patients should remain under clinical...