Laboratory Evidence of Recent Dengue Virus Infections in Southwestern Saudi Arabia
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- Category: Vol. 82, June 2014
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Laboratory Evidence of Recent Dengue Virus Infections in Southwestern Saudi Arabia, AWAD A. EL MEKKI
Abstract
Objective: To detect any indigenous recent denguefever virus infection in Aseer and Jazan regions since such infections have not been previously reported in Aseer region, and to raise the awareness of health care workers to include the possibility of dengue virus infection when investigating febrile illnesses.
Design: A representative sample of 965 individuals at-tending randomly selected health care centers in the study area (Aseer and Jazan Regions, southwestern Saudi Arabia) were interviewed and tested for dengue virus (DENV) specific IgM against the four serotypes for evidence of recent DENV infection.
Results: Eight of the study samples were found to be sero-positive for Dengue virus specific IgM giving a sero-prevalence of eight per thousand. Five cases were males and three were females. Five cases were from Aseer Region and three cases were from Jazan Region. One case was among an adolescent (aged 10-19 years), 2 cases were among elderly (aged 60 years or more), and five cases were found among adults (aged 20-59 years).
Conclusions: The present study reports, for the first time, cases of DENV infection indigenous to Aseer Region. A seroprevalence of eight per one thousand was documented. Based on this finding, residents of these areas should be discouraged from having drinking water basins for animals in their houses and health care professionals should test for DENV infection when investigating febrile illnesses so as not to miss any sporadic cases of this infection.