Molecular detection of dengue virus serotypes prevalent in central Kerala and its correlation with disease severity

---

Original Article

Author Details : Rugma R*, Chithra Valsan, E Sreekumar, KA Sathiavathy

Volume : 9, Issue : 1, Year : 2022

Article Page : 55-61

https://doi.org/10.18231/j.ijmr.2022.009

Suggest article by email

Get Permission

---

Abstract

Background: Dengue is the most important mosquito-borne viral disease in the world. In 2017, a concerning increase in dengue cases with high mortality was seen in India with Kerala topping the list. Changing pattern of circulating dengue virus serotype and co infection with multiple serotypes contribute to the increasing trend in severity and increased mortality of dengue fever. The present study focused to find the dengue serotypes prevalent in central Kerala and prevalence of co infection with multiple serotypes here with an attempt to correlate these with clinical severity of dengue
Materials and Methods : This descriptive study was done in the Microbiology department of Jubilee Mission Medical College, Thrissur for a period of 18 months. Blood samples of clinically suspected dengue fever cases which were positive for NS1 antigen and having fever not more than 5 days were subjected to molecular methods to detect dengue virus RNA followed by multiplex RTPCR to find its serotype. Demographic features, clinical details and lab parameters were also collected from each patient.
Results: A total of 108 samples positive for Dengue NS1 antigen were subjected to RT-PCR. Among them 61(56.5%) were positive by RT-PCR. All the 4 Dengue serotypes were found with DENV-2 with 30 cases (49.2%) being the predominant serotype followed by DENV-1 with 20 cases (32.8%), DENV-3 with 12 cases (19.6%) and DENV-4 with 2 cases (3.27%). Three cases (4.9%) of co infection with DENV-1,2, DENV-1, 4 and DENV-2,3 were also found. Two among the 108 patients (1.85%) died in the present study. Significant correlation between severity of dengue infection and serotypes could not be found due to very few severe cases encountered during the study.
Interpretation and Conclusion : The dengue serotypes predominant in central Kerala is DENV-2. The prevalence of co infection with multiple serotypes is 4.9% which proves that this area has become hyper endemic to the disease, which increases the risk of emergence of more severe cases.
 

Keywords: Dengue virus, Serotypes, RTPCR

How to cite : Rugma R, Valsan C, Sreekumar E, Sathiavathy K, Molecular detection of dengue virus serotypes prevalent in central Kerala and its correlation with disease severity. Indian J Microbiol Res 2022;9(1):55-61

This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.