Dengue is a tropical mosquito borne flavivirus infection and a leading public health problem
in India. Four serotypes DEN1-4 cause high morbidity and mortality. Dengue is a spherical
lipid enveloped positive stranded RNA virus having a 10200 Kb RNA genome coding for three
structural (capsid C premembrane PrM and envelope E) and seven nonstructural proteins. Early
sensitive and specific diagnosis is paramount for patient management prevention of
complications etiologic investigation and disease control. Early diagnosis is achieved by NS1
antigen detection nucleic acid amplification and virus isolation. Diagnosis after five days is
conferred by IgM IgG based serological techniques such as ELISA hemagglutination inhibition
complement fixation and neutralization test. The aim of this study is to compare serological
and nucleic acid based methods for early diagnosis of dengue and differentiation of serotypes.
For this Dengue was diagnosed using NS1 antigen IgM IgG LF-ICT IgM µ capture ELISA RT-PCR
and tests were compared. M-PCR was done to identify serotypes.
