Hospital Seroprevalence of Dengue Virus Infection among Adults of Urban Dhaka

Background: Global incidence of dengue has increased dramatically over the last few decades. In Bangladesh, there is a high transmission of Dengue in urban and peri-urban areas of Dhaka and other major cities. Seasonal variation, improper surveillance, underreporting of dengue infection have made difficult to estimate disease burden of dengue. Objective: This study was aimed to observe the rate of seropositivity by ELISA for Dengue IgG patients presenting to hospital. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study done in seven medical college hospital in urban Dhaka from January 2018 to March 2018. A small amount of blood was taken obtaining informed written consent in patients selected by purposive sampling during presenting to hospitals and a pre-tested questionnaire was fill to gather socio-demographic and relevant epidemiological data. Results: A total of 695 patients were included in this study with a mean age 34.9±16.49. Dengue IgG was positive in 349 (51.2%), positivity was found highest (70%) in Shahabuddin Medical College Hospital and lowest (25%) in Uttara Adhunik Medical College. Dengue IgG positive patients were more literate (82% vs 74.2%), more from urban setting (51.2% vs 41.8%), had more monthly income, had more garden (26.8% vs 23.3%) and stagnant water (25.5% vs 23%) in comparison to IgG negative patients. Conclusion: This study revealed that high seroprevalence posing risk to develop severe dengue and indicating high disease burden which warranted large scale well design population-based study. Bangladesh Med Res Counc Bull 2021; 47(1): 17-22