Dengue

Today, more than 2.5 billion people living in the areas of tropical Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas are at risk for dengue infection. An estimated 100 million cases of dengue fever and 250,000 cases of life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever occur annually on a worldwide basis. Serological detection is a common method for the diagnosis of infection with dengue virus. IgM anti-dengue virus starts to appear at 3 days after initial exposure and remains in circulation for about 30-60 days. IgG anti-dengue virus is raised at around 7 days, peaks at 2-3 weeks and persists for the duration of life. Detection of antigens released during virus replication in the infected patient enables diagnosis from the first day after the onset of fever up to day 9 once the clinical phase of the disease is over, thus, allowing early detection and prompt treatment.