DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i01.059

Pages: 291-296

Dengue fever is one of the emerging infectious diseases which cause significant morbidity and mortality in children and adults especially in developing countries. The mortality from the complications of DF is as high as 20%, whereas if recognized early and managed properly, mortality is less than 1%. Diagnosing dengue fever in early phase is challenging because the initial symptoms are often non-specific like any other viral infections. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of serological tests for early detection of Dengue fever. It was a prospective study. The study included patients in the age group between 6 months to 14 yrs with fever up to 7 days fulfilling the WHO clinical criteria of dengue fever. Statistical analysis included sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV Chi square test and Fischer exact test. Of the 143 patients enrolled, 100 were serologically proved to have dengue illness and the rest 43 were non dengue patients. Of the 100 dengue patients NS1, IgM and IgG was positive in 62, 53 and 15 patients respectively. NS1 antigen and IgM antibody high specificity and positive predictive value (both 100 %), they have low sensitivity with NS1 62% and IgM 53 %. This study shows that by doing both NS1 antigen detection and IgM and IgG antibodies we can diagnose dengue fever early and hence they do have a significant role in the early diagnosis of dengue fever.