Prevalence of Dengue fever in Western Part of Uttar Pradesh: Serological investigation and Comparative Analysis of ELISA testing for IgM antibodies and NS1Ag

Abstract

Background: Dengue cases in India are increasing in epidemic proportions. An early
and accurate diagnosis of dengue in the acute phase of illness is important for
initiation of therapy as well as for early enhancement of epidemic control measures.
The serum of the patients presenting with signs and symptoms of Dengue are
subjected to Dengue IgM Capture ELISA and NS1Ag detection. NS-1 Ag appears in
serum/plasma before the onset of IgM & IgG antibodies and its detection in
suspected dengue patient can be used as an early marker for the disease. The study
was undertaken to detect prevalence of dengue by ELISA testing of either NS1
antigen and/or IgM among the study population; to compare IgM capture ELISA
with NS1 antigen detection for diagnosis of dengue.
Materials and Methods: A total of 9900 blood samples were collected aseptically
from clinically suspected cases of dengue from August 2022 to July 2024. The
Serum from suspected cases of Dengue was separated and subjected to ELISA for
dengue (NS1Ag and IgM Ab). All the data and variables relevant to patients such as
gender and demographic profile were recorded and statistically analyzed. All were
subjected for detection of NS1 antigen or IgM by ELISA, 1328 were selected based
on their clinical severity of illness (fever, rash, bleeding manifestation, arthralgia) for
further study of IgM ELISA
Results: A total of 881(8.9%) patients were found seropositive either by NS1 Ag
and/or IgM Ab ELISA. The proportion of male was higher than female among all
seropositive cases, with the ratio of (M: F) 1.54:1 (P < 0.001). The positivity of
NS1Ag (P = 0.0002) and IgM (P = 0.0001) were significantly associated with male
gender.
Conclusion: Dengue NS1 antigen is used for rapid and accurate diagnosis in acute
phase of illness. Therefore, early diagnosis of dengue could be mainly by NS1
antigen detection whereas IgM ELISA is a better tool during the later stage of
infection.
Every suspected case of dengue must be screened for NS1 Ag and IgM Ab to
increase the diagnostic precision and combat the morbidity and mortality, despite
being males more affected in contrast to females due to socio-cultural differences.