Dengue among suspected patients with dengue admitted at a tertiary level hospital in Mymensingh region of Bangladesh: A hospital-based epidemiological study.

BACKGROUND

Dengue, a mosquito-borne disease predominantly found in tropical and subtropical countries like Bangladesh. The Aedes species particularly Aedes aegypti carry and transmit the dengue virus thus causing dengue fever irrespective of age, gender, race or religion. Limited studies on dengue in low endemic zone of Bangladesh are available. This study attempted to investigate factors influencing dengue among suspected patients with dengue in a tertiary level hospital at Mymensingh region of Bangladesh.

METHODS

A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 381 suspected patients with dengue admitted to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital, Mymensingh, Bangladesh from June 2023 to December 2023. A face to face interview was performed and there were no ignored cases in this study. Dengue infection was confirmed by a positive result of NS1 dengue antigen test if the blood sample taken within 7 days of the onset of fever, and IgM antibody test if the blood sample taken after 7th day of symptoms. The chi-square test and binary logistic regression model were used to determine the influencing factors of dengue using SPSS software (IBM version 25).

RESULTS

Most of the suspected patients came from urban environment (64.3%). The prevalence of dengue among suspected patients with dengue admitted at hospital was 74.3%, among them 45.9% and 28.3% were confirmed as dengue fever by NS1 antigen and IgM test respectively. Logistic regression model demonstrated that female had more likely to get dengue than male [aOR = 2.08, CI:1.09-3.93; p < 0.05]. Similarly, patients came from urban environment [aOR = 5.99, CI:3.09-11.64; p < 0.01], travel history to Dhaka in last two weeks preceding the survey [aOR = 11.21, CI:5.30-23.72; p < 0.01], participants did not use mosquito net during sleeping at day time [aOR = 2.74, CI:1.41-5.55; p < 0.01] and presence of water containers around the house [aOR = 12.00, CI: 5.69-25.29; p < 0.01] had higher chance to get dengue compared to their counterparts.

CONCLUSION

More than 25% suspected patients were not identified as dengue patients. Some factors were identified as risk for dengue. A safe working and living environment, self and community awareness and planned urbanization can help to prevent breeding of mosquito larvae that transmit dengue virus thus causing dengue.