WHO publication to facilitate clinical differentiation of arboviral diseases

Dengue is the most common mosquito-borne viral disease in the Americas and the most suspected in patients with fever. However, the recent introduction of two new arboviral diseases (chikungunya virus in late 2013 and Zika virus in 2014) has created a new challenge for public health in the Americas. The three arboviral diseases (dengue, chikungunya, and Zika) can produce very similar clinical symptoms, mainly during the acute phase (the first days of the disease), hindering clinical diagnosis by health workers, creating problems for appropriate case management, and sometimes triggering fatal events. Serological diagnosis has presented further difficulties, due to the cross-reaction between IgM/IgG antibodies of the dengue and Zika viruses, complicating laboratory confirmation and compromising epidemiological surveillance.