Aspectos de importancia clínica del dengue en la comunidad de San Mateo, Anzoátegui, Venezuela (2005-2008)

introduction: the diagnosis of dengue cases has been limited due to difficulty to identify early the acute febrile cases corresponding to this disease, obstructing its epidemiologic control. objective: to compare the clinical features of the cases diagnosed in the integral diagnostic center came spontaneously with those infected identified by active screening in a prevalence study of dengue in community. methods: a comparative and descriptive clinical study was conducted in 50 patients presenting symptoms of dengue came spontaneously (cases of passive study) from 2005 to 2006 with those of dengue identified by a point prevalence study (active search of cases) conducted from may, 2007 to may, 2008. as a summary measure of the study variables percentage was used. results: the comparative analysis showed that the passive study of the total of 50 cases, only the 20 % was igm positive, which is higher than results of the prevalence study demonstrating the presence of 80 positive patients from a total of 535 study persons for a 14.95 %; however, it not covered all the clinical disease range. the typical symptomatology of the dengue is the more frequent in both studies. conclusions: the seroprevalence studies guarantee the knowledge of the real magnitude of this problem. the proposal clinical spectrum for the positive igm covers all the possible symptomatology allowing a better disease control.