A STUDY OF SEROPREVALENCE OF DENGUE IN NORMAL POPULATION OF TIRUNELVELI

INTRODUCTION Dengue virus is a positive-strand RNA virus of the Flaviviridae family with 4 distinct serotypes (DV1-4), and is transmitted to humans by several species of the Aedes mosquito. It is a major cause of morbidity throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Since the severity of the disease ranges from asymptomatic, subclinical dengue infection to dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome, identifying the burden of IgG in normal population would be able to say that the worse form of the disease may happen in this population. Thus the current study enlightens the possible risk of dengue outbreak in this region any time in near future This allows for better planning and implementation of specific dengue prevention and control programmes MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 91 sera were obtained from people in the age group of 25 55 years, who attended the camp organized by Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital in the Collectorate campus for routine Health Checkup after taking their consent. Serum samples were subjected to dengue IgG ELISA (Nova ELISA).RESULTS Out of 91 serum samples subjected to IgG ELISA 23 where positive CONCLUSION This study was carried out to determine the magnitude of the threat of dengue epidemic in Tirunelveli. In this study the prevalence of dengue IgG in normal population was found to be 25 .The contributing factors for disease spread includes lack of community awareness and health education, open water storages, low socioeconomic status and epidemiology of vectors.