1 3 DOI 10.1007/s15010-014-0700-7 Infection BRIEF REPORT Characterization of the dengue outbreak in Nuevo Leon state, Mexico, 2010 D. Leduc-Galindo · U. Rincón-Herrera · J. Ramos-Jiménez · S. Garcia-Luna · D. Arellanos-Soto · N. Mendoza-Tavera · I. Tavitas-Aguilar · E. Garcia-Garcia · E. Galindo-Galindo · J. Villarreal-Perez · I. Fernandez-Salas · G. A. Santiago · J. Muñoz-Jordan · A. M. Rivas-Estilla Received: 15 July 2014 / Accepted: 1 November 2014 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015 Keywords Dengue fever (DF) · Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) · Dengue virus (DENV) · Breteau index (BI) · Mexico Introduction Dengue (mild or severe) is a common viral disease that constitutes a major public health problem in most tropi- cal countries. It is caused by four serotypes (DENV1-4), positive-sense RNA mosquito-borne viruses belonging to the Flavivirus genus. Dengue asymptomatic infection rates depends on virus strain and outbreak, most being asymp- tomatic and a smaller number progress to the severe forms of the disease [1]. The World Health Organization reports that dengue is endemic in more than 100 countries world- wide and estimated 50 million cases occur annually [2]. Dengue has rapidly reemerged throughout Mexico, Cen- tral and South America, and the Caribbean in the last three decades [2]. In 2007, there were more than 890,000 cases of dengue reported in the Americas [2]. DENV outbreaks have occurred in several highly urbanized areas in Central and South America [3]. The risk of epidemic dengue hem- orrhagic fever is increasing in Mexico [4]. In spite of intense control efforts for dengue; outbreaks continue to occur throughout the country, however, infor- mation of DENV epidemiological features is limited, par- ticularly in Northeastern Mexico, which is a potentially important source of DENV for the lower Rio Grande Valley of the state of Texas. Therefore, in this report, we describe the characteristics of the dengue outbreak occurred in 2010 in the Northeastern State of Nuevo Leon, Mexico focusing on the distribution of DENV cases, virus serotypes circulat- ing, environmental features as well as main age and gender groups affected. Abstract We studied serotypes circulating dengue virus (DENV) cases, entomological Breteau index, rain-fall index and epidemiology of groups affected during the 2010 outbreak in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. From 2,271 positive cases, 94 % were dengue classic and 6 % dengue hemor- rhagic fever; DENV1 was mainly isolated (99 %) (Central- American lineage of American-African-genotype). We found correlation between two environmental phenomena (Increment of rainfall and vector-indexes) (p ≤ 0.05) with epidemiological, clinical and risk of DENV-1 ongoing transmission. D. Leduc-Galindo · U. Rincón-Herrera · S. Garcia-Luna · D. Arellanos-Soto · A. M. Rivas-Estilla (*) Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Facultad de Medicina and Hospital Universitario “Dr. José E. Gonzalez”, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Av. Francisco I. Madero y Eduardo Aguirre Pequeño s/n Col. Mitras Centro, CP 64460 Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico e-mail: amrivas1@yahoo.ca J. Ramos-Jiménez · N. Mendoza-Tavera · J. Villarreal-Perez Department of Internal Medicine, Facultad de Medicina and Hospital Universitario “Dr. José E. Gonzalez”, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico I. Tavitas-Aguilar · E. Garcia-Garcia · E. Galindo-Galindo · J. Villarreal-Perez Nuevo León Reference Laboratory of Secretariat of Health, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico I. Fernandez-Salas Department of Entomology, School of Biological Sciences, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, San Nicolás de los Garza, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico G. A. Santiago · J. Muñoz-Jordan Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, San Juan, PR, USA