Dengue in a Population of Filipino Children

Dengue virus infection is a leading cause of morbidity among children in the Philippines in recent years. In order to investigate the association of HLA Class I and II alleles and dengue disease severity in a cohort of Filipino children, we performed a case control study in 2 hos-pitals in Metro Manila from June 2008 to December 2009. A total of 250 laboratory con-firmed dengue patients and 300 healthy individuals aged 5 to 15 years old were typed for HLA-A, B and DRB1 alleles. The frequency of HLA-A*33:01 was significantly decreased in severe dengue (DHF / DSS; Pc = 0.0016)) and DSS (Pc = 0.0032) compared to the back-ground population. These findings support a previous study that this allele may confer pro-tection against the severe form of dengue and provide the first evidence of HLA association with dengue in the Philippines. Future studies should be directed in investigating the possi-ble mechanisms of protection