Disease severity & its Importance in selecting cost effective measures for Dengue management

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Original Article

Author Details : Sunil Santaji Shivekar, Anand Shankarao Patil, Gopal Rangasamy

Volume : 3, Issue : 3, Year : 2016

Article Page : 314-316

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Abstract

Background: In recent years Dengue has been referred to as “multimillion disease” because of the high cost in diagnosis and treatment including prolonged hospitalization. India has the world’s highest population suffering from dengue infection with varying degrees of severity resulting in deaths. The high mortality rate in our community has forced doctors to treat dengue injudiciously at times resulting in increase in the cost of treatment and diagnosis. Millions of dollars are spent annually for purchasing diagnostic kits and medicines. The estimation of degree of severity of dengue among the local population may play an important role in selecting the cost effective measure in dengue diagnosis and treatment.
Aims and Objective: In the present study, all the dengue positive cases were examined for degree of severity of dengue infection among the local population and asses the role of platelet transfusion in treatment.
Materials and Methods: The serum samples were tested for dengue IgM antibodies by ELISA method and the platelet count was estimated by using the autoanalyzer.
Results: A total of 82(22.96%) patients were reported positive for dengue-specific IgM antibodies. The analysis of disease risk showed that majority of patients (85.36%) had either low or no risk of developing complications associated with dengue, where as 6% & 8.5% had high and moderate risk to develop dengue complications.
Conclusion: Although dengue infection has been reported with high seropositivity, it is present in milder form which not require hospitalization. In such cases monitoring of platelet count and supportive therapy with analgesic and complete bed rest will be help in management of dengue infection with minimal cost.

Keywords: Dengue severity, management cost and IgM-ELISA

How to cite : Shivekar S S, Patil A S, Rangasamy G, Disease severity & its Importance in selecting cost effective measures for Dengue management. Indian J Microbiol Res 2016;3(3):314-316

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