DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2020.v08i02.070

Pages: 749-752

Background: Dengue is a serious mosquito borne viral infection that occurs in humans throughout the world. Uncontrolled urbanization, expanding urban population, poverty, ineffective public health infrastructure, faster modes of transportation, globalization of trade and increased international travel have all been implicated as factors leading to the spread of dengue around the world and vary from place to place. Keeping these in mind a study was undertaken to study the epidemiology of dengue fever at IGIMS, Patna. Material and Methods: It was a prospective hospital based study from November 2018 to October 2019. All suspected case of dengue fever, which were either admitted or had visited OPD of medicine and paediatric Departments of IGIMS, Patna, with suspected Dengue fever were screened for Dengue infection in the Virology laboratory of IGIMS Patna. Results: Out of a total of 1522 cases with a clinical suspicion of dengue infection, 344 cases (22.60%) were found to be positive for either current or past Dengue infection. There was an increase in the number of cases tested for Dengue from August to November with maximum number of cases being positive in the month of October-2019 (34%). This corresponds to the monsoon season of this place. Of the 344 positive cases, 231 were male and 113 were female. Maximum seropositivity was seen in 15-60 years age group. Conclusion: Dengue is an emerging public health problem in India. High degree of suspicion, screening for Dengue in suspect cases and preventive measures during monsoon and water stagnation periods may help us in the fight against spread of dengue infection.