Dengue Outbreak 2018 in District Shangla KPK; Clinical Features and Laboratory Markers of Dengue Virus Infection

Abstract

Aim: To analyze and quantify the 2018 dengue outbreak which occurred in district Shangla, Pakistan. Materials & methods: 964 suspected dengue samples were collected and examined for clinical manifestation and laboratory markers. Results: In all, 375 suspected cases were confirmed with dengue virus infection using nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) antigen, immunoglobulin M (IgM) & Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies and real-time PCR whereas PCR was 92.2% sensitive. The most prevalent serotype was dengue virus 3 (60.26%). The male/female ratio was 1.84 and the most highly affected tehsil was Alpuri. The most affected age group was 16–40 years (70.4%). A significant number of cases were reported in September (48.54%). Conclusion: Recurrence of the dengue outbreaks in the study area could alarmingly increase the mortality rate, therefore, proper measures are essential to control dengue epidemics in the future.

Keywords:

• dengue
• NS1
• outbreak 2018
• real-time PCR
• Shangla

Author contributions

All the mentioned authors have equally contributed. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgments

The authors are very thankful to Mrs J Lees, Fina Biosolutions, Washington DC for critical review of the manuscript and English language editing. The authors are also thankful to district headquarter hospital Shangla for providing research facilities and ethical approval.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript

Ethical conduct of research

Approval was granted from the Ethical committee, Department of Genetics Hazara University Mansehra, Pakistan. As the data does not reveal personal information of the patients the need for informed consent was waived by the ethical committee.