ABSTRACT
@#Prior to COVID-19, dengue was an important public health problem in Malaysia. Due to the movement control order imposed by the Malaysian government to curb the COVID-19 transmission, a study predicted that mosquito-borne diseases would increase during lockdown and partial lockdown seasons. Thus, this study aims to determine the current situation of dengue incidence during the pre-COVID-19 pandemic (2019) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020 and 2021). We compared the number of laboratory-confirmed cases in the pre-COVID19 year (2019) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020 and 2021). In addition to that, we characterized the clinical manifestation, dengue serotype and viremia levels of dengue patients that were admitted to the Hospital Cancelor Tuanku Muhriz. We found a significant decrease in the number of laboratory-confirmed cases between COVID-19 pandemic and the pre-covid period (p2020=0.064; p2021<0.001). In this study, we found DENV 4 serotype was the most common serotype in dengue patients admitted to our hospital. There was no significant correlation between DENV serotype/viremia level with clinical manifestation of dengue fever and dengue with warning signs. However, patients infected with DENV4 had the highest viral load compared to patients infected with other serotypes. We also found high viremia levels were significantly associated with the febrile phase.
ABSTRACT
Dengue is a mosquito-transmitted infection and is an important health problem in Asia for its fatality. The objective of the study was to determine some epidemiological parameters relating to age, gender, community, and prevalence nature, serology and disease severity. One hundred forty nine dengue suspected sera samples were obtained from suspected patients presenting with dengue symptoms. The samples collected were analyzed by serological detection of Immunoglobulin-M [IgM], Immunoglobulin G [IgG], virus culture in cell- line C36/36 and Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction [RT-PCR]. The studies showed that out of 149 sera samples, 48 [32.2%] were detected dengue virus by cell culture and RT-PCR and 108 [72.5%] positive by serology. Of the 108 cases, 40 [26.8%] were positive to IgM, 61 [41%] were positive to both IgG and IgM, and 7[4.7%] cases were positive to IgG only. Prevalence of dengue was higher in age group 20-29 years and infection was more in male and in Malay population. Epidemic intensity was the highest in the month of June. Dengue is highly endemic in Malaysia and age group 20-29 was vulnerable to infection, male infected more than female and infection was higher in Malay community. Effective preventive and control measures may be strengthened to reduce the infections