Dengue-like illness on the rise: A ‘Kathmandu Syndrome’?

We need better surveillance to identify viruses to mitigate and manage cases before they get out of hand.

A few days ago, a friend called to inform me that one of his relatives was suffering from symptoms similar to the dengue virus. Since Nepal is witnessing the biggest ongoing dengue outbreak, laboratory testing was thus advised to confirm the virus. The patient tested negative for dengue, contrary to what was expected and tested negative again the second time. In fact, since the beginning of the 2022 dengue outbreak, dozens of patients with symptoms similar to dengue have tested negative for the virus, here dubbed as ‘Kathmandu Syndrome’. The emergence of such unidentified dengue-like illness or ‘Kathmandu Syndrome’ in Nepal is a matter of grave concern.