NS1 Antigen Capture ELISA an Effective Method for Diagnosis of Early Dengue Infection - Report of an Outbreak at Angul District, Odisha, India.

BACKGROUND

An outbreak of dengue infection occurred in Angul district of Odisha in the month of August & September, 2011. The study was undertaken to detect NS1 antigen positivity among the study population, to compare IgM capture ELISA with NS1 antigen detection for diagnosis of dengue and to identify the predominant genotype of Dengue virus responsible for the outbreak.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Total 1020 serum samples were collected from clinically suspected cases of dengue from the outbreak. All were subjected for NS1 antigen detection, 92 were selected based on their clinical severity of illness (fever, rash, bleeding manifestation, arthralgia) for further study of IgM ELISA and platelet count and 148 NS1 positive samples were selected from different Blocks of Anugul district for RT-PCR at NIV, Pune, India.

RESULTS

Five hundred and thirteen (50.2%) samples were positive for NS1 antigen (highly significant p-value <0.0001, C.I - 95%) with 88% positivity during 1-5 days. The NS1 Ag positivity was peaked to 86.9% on days 3 to 5 (Sensitivity & NPV - 100% each) & declined to 6.2% during 6-10 days with a low sensitivity of 7.14% but 100% specificity & PPV. However, the IgM antibody positivity was 81.2% on days 6 to 10 and 87.5% after 10 days (Sensitivity- 100%, Specificity-13.33%,PPV-7.14% & NPV - 100%). RT-PCR resulted 32.4% positivity (6- DEN1, 39 - DEN 2 & 3- DEN 3) among which 20% were in IgM +ve & 68% in IgM -ve cases.

CONCLUSION

Therefore, early diagnosis of dengue could be mainly by NS1 antigen detection whereas Ig M ELISA is a better tool during the later stage of infection &RT-PCR is more effective in IgM -ve cases.The predominant genotype responsible for the outbreak was found to be DEN-2.