Correlation of Dengue Viral Load With Dengue Disease Severity and Serology Among Children and Adults Attending a Tertiary Care Hospital in Mumbai, India

Introduction - Dengue fever is spreading rapidly around the world and is caused by any of four dengue virus serotypes (DENV-1, 2, 3, and 4) and is a major public health problem. During an outbreak, the number of seriously ill people visiting hospitals can overwhelm public health systems in many urban centres. Current information about why some people infected with dengue develop severe illness and others remain asymptomatic or have mild illness is not yet understood. Material And Methods-AProspective laboratory study was conducted over a period of 6 months (n = 200) in year 2015 in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular diagnostic Reference laboratory associated with tertiary care hospital. Approval of Institutional Ethics Committee was taken prior to beginning of the study. Results - Of 200 clinically suspected Dengue cases, 119 (82.4 %) were positive for Dengue virus conrmed by RT-PCR. Of the 119 laboratory conrmed cases, 98 (82.4 %) presented as Dengue Fever (DF), 17 (14.3%) presented as Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF) and 4 (3.4%) presented as Dengue shock syndrome (DSS). The distribution of viral load differed 4 5 signicantly in dengue fever (P-value<0.01) and was found in the reference range of Log 10 to Log 10 . The viral load was found less in samples positive for IgM antibodies. Discussion And Conclusion - Correlation of viral load with clinical and serological data can provide important information on the aetiology of various dengue-related syndromes such as dengue haemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome. This is because multiple factors, including interactions between immune characteristics, are involved in disease progression and complications.