Canadian company requested to ship Dengue Fever test kits to Hong Kong immediately

Apr 27 2004

Medical Services International Inc. has announced that it has been requested to ship VScan Dengue Fever test kits to Hong Kong immediately.

According to our Hong Kong distributor there has been an unexpected outbreak of Dengue Fever in Hong Kong. Public service announcements currently being broadcast in Hong Kong are describing the symptoms of Dengue Fever and if individuals are experiencing these symptoms they are to see their doctor immediately.

The current problem is that the laboratories are taking 2 to 3 weeks to get test results. The key to full recovery from Dengue Fever is immediate fluid replacement therapy.

With a delay in diagnosis, fluid replacement therapy is administered too late and the individual can be severely incapacitated or die. Standard recovery time for the mildest form of Dengue Fever without any treatment is 3 to 4 months.

With the VScan Dengue Fever test kit the detection of the Dengue Fever Virus is within 20 minutes and treatment can start immediately. Early detection means that if necessary, fluid replacement therapy can be used to prevent the collapse of the circulatory system and resulting in the affects of Dengue Fever being minimal.

The Company anticipates that the test results obtained in testing will demonstrate once again how versatile and accurate that the VScan test kits are.

There are no other rapid test kits currently available for Dengue Fever that perform as well as the VScan rapid test kit for Dengue Fever.

Dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are acute febrile diseases, found in the tropics, with a geographical spread similar to malaria. Caused by one of four closely related virus serotypes of the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae, each serotype is sufficiently different that there is no cross-protection and epidemics caused by multiple serotypes (hyperendemicity) can occur. Dengue is transmitted to humans by the mosquito Aedes aegypti (rarely Aedes albopictus).

Signs and symptoms

The disease is manifested by a sudden onset of fever, with severe headache, joint and muscular pains (myalgias and arthralgias, severe pain gives it the name break-bone fever) and rashes; the dengue rash is characteristically bright red, petechial and usually appears first on the lower limbs - in some patients, it spreads to cover most of the body. There may also be gastritis with some combination of associated abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.

The classical dengue fever lasts about six to seven days with a smaller peak of fever at the trailing end of the fever (the so-called "biphasic pattern"). Clinically, the platelet count will drop until the patient is afebrile.

Cases of DHF also shows higher fever, haemorrhagic phenomena, thrombocytopenia and haemoconcentration. A small proportion of cases leads to dengue shock syndrome (DDS) which has a high mortality rate.

Diagnosis

The diagnosis of dengue is usually made clinically. The classical picture is of fever with no localising source of infection, a petechial rash with thrombocytopenia and relative leukopenia. Serology and PCR (polymerase chain reaction) studies are available to confirm the diagnosis of dengue if clinically indicated.

Treatment

The mainstay of treatment is supportive therapy. The patient is encouraged to keep up oral intake, especially of oral fluids. If the patient is unable to maintain oral intake, supplementation with intravenous fluids may be necessary to prevent dehydration and significant hemoconcentration. A platelet transfusion is indicated if the platelet level drops significantly.

Epidemiology

The first epidemics occurred almost simulataneously, in Asia, Africa, and North America in the 1780s, the disease was identified and named in 1779. Initially it was rather benign. A global pandemic began in Southeast Asia in the 1950s, by 1975 DHF had become a leading cause of death among children in many countries in that region. Epidemic dengue has become more common since the 1980s, by the late 1990s dengue was the most important mosquito-borne viral disease affecting humans after malaria, there are around 40 million cases of dengue fever and several hundred thousand cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever each year. In February 2002 there was a serious outbreak in Rio De Janeiro, affecting around one million people but only killing sixteen.

Significant outbreaks of dengue fever tend to occur every five or six years. There tend to remain large numbers of susceptible people in the population despite previous outbreaks because there are four different strains of the dengue virus and because of new susceptible individuals entering the target population, either through childbirth or immigration.

In Singapore, there are about 4-5000 reported cases of dengue fever or dengue hemorrhagic fever every year. In the year 2003, there were 6 deaths from dengue shock syndrome. It is believed that the reported cases of dengue are an underrepresentation of all the cases of dengue as it would ignore subclinical cases and cases where the patient did not present for medical treatment. The mortality rate for dengue is therefore probably less than 1 in 1000.

Prevention

There is no commercially ready vaccine for the dengue flavivirus.

Primary prevention of dengue mainly resides in eliminating or reducing the mosquito vector for dengue. Initiatives to eradicate pools of standing water (such as in flowerpots) have proven useful in controlling mosquito borne diseases.

http://en.wikipedia.org

The VScan rapid test kit is a single use, easy to use, test for the screening of HIV 1&2 subgroup O, Hepatitis B&C, Tuberculosis (TB), Dengue Fever and West Nile. The kits cannot be sold in Canada. Medical Services International Inc. trades in the United States on the NQB Pinksheets under the symbol "MSITF". For further information, please contact Robert Talbot at (780) 430 6363 or Bill Whitehead Jr. at (416) 822 5883 or http://www.medicalservicesintl.com