PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases (Apr 2022)

Incidence of lab-confirmed dengue fever in a pediatric cohort in Delhi, India.

  • Bireshwar Sinha,
  • Nidhi Goyal,
  • Mohan Kumar,
  • Aashish Choudhary,
  • Alok Arya,
  • Anitha Revi,
  • Ankita Dutta,
  • Deepak More,
  • Temsunaro Rongsen-Chandola

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010333
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 4
p. e0010333

Abstract

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BackgroundOur aim was to estimate the overall and age-specific incidence of lab-confirmed dengue fever using ELISA based assays among children 6 months to 15 years in Delhi.MethodsWe enrolled a cohort of 984 children aged 6 months to Principal findingsWe had a total of 1953 person-years (PY) of follow up. Overall, there were 4208 episodes of fever with peaks during June to November. The overall incidence (95%CI) of fever was 215/100 PY (209 to 222). A total of 74/1250 3-day fever episodes were positive for acute dengue fever (NS1 and/or IgM positive). The overall incidence (95%CI) of acute dengue fever was 37.9 (29.8 to 47.6) per 1000 PY; highest among children aged 5 to 10 years (50.4 per 1000 PY, 95% CI 36.5 to 67.8). Spatial autocorrelation analysis suggested a clustering pattern for the dengue fever cases (Moran's Index 0.35, z-score 1.8, p = 0.06). Dengue PCR was positive in 16 of the 24 specimens tested; DEN 3 was the predominant serotype identified in 15/24 specimens.ConclusionsWe found a high incidence of dengue fever among under 15-year children with clustering of cases in the community. DEN 3 was the most commonly circulating strain encountered. The findings underscore the need for development of affordable pre-vaccination screening strategy as well as newer dengue vaccines for young children while continuing efforts in vector control.