Positive Rate of Antibody Against Dengue Virus for Korean Who Traveled to Dengue Epidemic Area

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Recently, dengue fever has increased throughout tropical regions and emerged as the most important vector borne viral disease in human. 4 serotypes of viruses are circulating concurrently in these regions and thus it may be anticipated to increase risk of dengue hemorrhagic fever. Even though dengue fever is still not endemic in Korea, it is necessary to test antibodies against dengue viruses because the number of Koreans who have visited these regions is continuously increasing. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Serum specimens from persons with suspected dengue fever had been collected. Commercial kit, immunochromatographic test (ICA), and the IgM capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (MAC-ELISA) were employed for dengue fever detection in these studies. For confirmation randomized 25 specimens among total of 99 specimens were selected and compared with those results from commercial kit and IFA. RESULTS: 33 (33.3%) among 99 specimens showed positive antibody against dengue virus by commercial kit. Positive rate of traveller who have visited Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thiland was 54.5%. To compare the efficiency of test methods, 25 randomly selected specimens were tested by the MAC-ELISA and IFA simultaneously. 9 specimens showed postive results with the MAC-ELISA method whereas 13 speciments were positive with the IFA methods. CONCLUSION: Confirming the diagnosis of dengue fever with antibody against dengue virus was attempted for the first time in Korea. The results from our study indicate that establishing a national surveillance and/or laboratory diagnostic system in Korea are necessary. In addtion, antibody test strategies for national surveillance system should be carefully considered.