Abstract
Dengue has become a major health concern globally in recent decades. Dengue infected patients manifest a spectrum of symptoms and in severe cases the fate is mortality. A hallmark of dengue infection is thrombocytopenia which causes concern for the patients and treating doctors. This study aimed to evaluate the incidence of thrombocytopenia in seropositive dengue patients. Bleeding manifestation was also investigated in dengue patients to evaluate its association with the severity of thrombocytopenia. In this study, 750 individuals were screened for dengue infection by detecting immunoglobulin M (IgM) against dengue virus in their serum. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed for detection of IgM antibody and 250 individuals were found to be seropositive. Platelet counts were performed on whole blood of seropositive patients using Sysmex XE-5000 Automated Hematology Analyzer. Among 250 dengue patients, 2% had severe thrombocytopenia, 65.2% were found to have mild to moderate thrombocytopenia and 32.8% had normal platelet counts. Bleeding was related to the severity of thrombocytopenia as 80% of patients having platelet count lower than 25000/μl showed bleeding manifestations. Key words: Dengue, thrombocytopenia, seropositive, immunoglobin M (IgM), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), platelet count.
Highlights
Dengue viral infection is currently amongst the most critical arthropod-borne infections from the public health view point
The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of thrombocytopenia in seropositive dengue patients
After informed consent and written performa was taken from each patient, 2 ml of blood was drawn into gel vial for serum separation and another 2 ml was drawn into an ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA)-filled tube for platelet count
Summary
Dengue viral infection is currently amongst the most critical arthropod-borne infections from the public health view point. Concerning the incidence of dengue all over the world, the graph has risen up noticeably in recent decades and over 40% of the world's population is at risk from dengue. It has been estimated that there may be 50 to 100 million dengue infections globally per year (World Health Organization (WHO), 2013). Four distinct serotypes of dengue virus are known to cause the disease (DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and DEN-4) and Aedes aegypti mosquito is the primary vector. Recovery from infection by one serotype offers lasting immunity against that particular serotype, but subsequent infections by other serotypes increase the risk of developing severe dengue (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2000). Dengue fever is a severe, flu-like sickness in which high grade fever (104°F) is accompanied by severe
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