Seropositivity to dengue and associated risk factors among non-malarias acute febrile patients in Arba Minch districts, southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Dengue fever is an arthropod vector-borne disease transmitted to humans by infected Aedes mosquitoes. Ethiopia has a favorable ecology for arthropods and report high burden of acute febrile illnesses. However, the contribution of arboviral infections to the burden of acute febrile illnesses is barely known. In this study the seropositivity to dengue virus infection and associated risk factors were assessed in Arba Minch districts, southern Ethiopia.

Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted in a consecutive group of 529 acute febrile patients between May to August 2016. Socio-demographic data, residence place and clinical signs and symptoms were collected using structured questionnaires. Sera were tested for anti-dengue IgG and IgM using Euroimmune indirect immunofluorescent assay. Data analysis was done using SPSS V-20 (IBM Corp, 2012). P-value < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant.

Result: Seropositivity was 25.1% (133/529) and 8.1% (43/529) for anti- IgG and IgM respectively.

Conclusion: The high IgM prevalence detected indicate the probability of active transmission with a potential of public health significance that calls for a proactive follow up of the communities in the study area to forecast and avert the risk.

Keywords: Dengue virus; Febrile illness; Immunofluorescence; Seroprevalence.