Distribution of Dengue Virus Serotype Based on Neutralization Assay in Northwest  Ethiopia

Getachew Ferede; Moges Tiruneh; Ebba Abate; Yitayih Wondimeneh; Belay Tessema; Uwe G Liebert

doi:10.20372/ejhbs.v13i1.455

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Published: 2023-03-30

DOI: https://doi.org/10.20372/ejhbs.v13i1.455

Keywords:

Dengue virus, NS1 antigen, neutralizing antibodies, Northwest Ethiopia

Getachew Ferede

Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Biomedical and Laboratory Sciences, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia

Moges Tiruneh

Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Biomedical and Laboratory Sciences, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia

Ebba Abate

Ethiopian Public Health Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Yitayih Wondimeneh

Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Biomedical and Laboratory Sciences, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia

Belay Tessema

Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Biomedical and Laboratory Sciences, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia

Uwe G Liebert

Institute of Virology, Leipzig University, Germany

Abstract

Background: Dengue virus (DENV) is arthropod-borne virus transmitted by the bite of Aedes mosquitoes. Neighboring countries are highly endemic for DENV, but specific data on the occurrence of DENV in Ethiopia are not available. Therefore, this study aimed to provide information on the presence of different DENV serotypes in the study areas.
Method: The study was conducted from January 2016 to March 2017 in northwest Ethiopia. Blood samples were collected from febrile patients and screened for IgM and IgG antibodies against DENV by ELISA. Further, IgM positive samples were screened for dengue NS1 antigen and RT-PCR targeting the NS5 gene of DENV while IgG positive samples were analyzed using neutralization test (ND50) to measure titers of dengue serotype-specific antibodies.
Result: Out of 114 anti-dengue IgM positive samples, dengue NS1 antigen was positive in 17 (14.9%) while none of the samples were positive for RT-PCR. Neutralization test results were obtained from randomly selected 60 dengue IgG positive samples, and of which 49 (81.7%) had neutralized one or more DENV serotypes. Out of 49 neutralization test positive samples, 27 (55.1%) had neutralizing antibodies to DENV-1, 38 (77.6%) to DENV-2 and 18 (36.7%) to DENV-3. DENV-4 neutralizing antibodies were not detected. The most frequent monotypic neutralizing antibodies were against DENV-2.
Conclusion: Dengue virus neutralizing antibodies present in most of the cases investigated. This indicates the presence of dengue infections as neglected cases of fever and thus highlight the importance of dengue surveillance, prevention, and control in the country

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 1 (2023)

Section

Orginal Articles

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

© The Author(s). This article is published in the Ethiopian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences as an open-access article and is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original author(s) and the source are properly cited.

How to Cite

Ferede G, Tiruneh M, Abate E, Wondimeneh Y, Tessema B, Liebert UG. Distribution of Dengue Virus Serotype Based on Neutralization Assay in Northwest Ethiopia . Ethiop J Health Biomed Sci [Internet]. 2023 Mar. 30 [cited 2026 Jan. 31];13(1):13-21. Available from: https://ejhbs.uog.edu.et/index.php/EJHBS/article/view/455