[Mother-infant dengue transmission during the 2009-2010 dengue epidemic: report of four cases].

The risks related to dengue virus infection during pregnancy have been increasingly better described over the past 10 years. The possibility of maternal-fetal transmission is now recognized, but the diagnosis is still too late because of a wide range of clinical signs that the infected newborn child can present. From December 2009 to October 2010, Guadeloupe Island underwent an exceptional dengue epidemic. During this epidemic, at least four cases of vertical virus transmission were biologically proved. The purpose of this article is to describe the clinical aspects of these cases, some of which have rarely been described in this pathology. Of the four cases, one showed fetal growth restriction, one neonatal cholestasia, one twin pregnancy, and what seems to be the first case of hemophagocytic syndrome associated with a newborn child infected by this virus. Although the proportion of vertical transmission proved is low, compared with the number of adults affected during an epidemic, some severe cases urge us to be increasingly watchful with this emergent arbovirus, especially because its real incidence is still unknown.