MDB Series - Dengue Part 4

This post is fourth in the series about mosquito borne diseases.

Disclaimer: This post is for information purposes only. This is not written by any medical doctor or government official or anyone related to the worldwide research on mosquito borne diseases. Neither is this a complete information about dengue and should not be relied on for reference. However, we have taken care to refer to reliable sources on the web, the links to which would be provided at the end of the post.

Diagnosis

Clinical diagnosis is usually based on reported symptoms and physical examination. Since dengue has symptoms similar to many viral infections, diagnosis is made when there is fever combined with any two of the following conditions – nauseas and/or vomiting, body pain, rash, low white blood cell count and positive tourniquet test. The tourniquet test is useful in situations where laboratory conditions are not available.

The warning signs occur before the onset of severe dengue. To further determine if it is dengue, the patient’s blood is tested for the presence of the virus and antibodies. Serum samples from the patients’ body are collected for more accurate tests.

ELISA (Enzyme-linked Immuno Sorbent Assay) is a test conducted to find specific anti-dengue antibodies. This is the test conducted by the Government Hospitals in Tamilnadu for diagnosis.

There is a more expensive, complicated but more accurate test called PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) which is done to identify genome sequence of the virus from the serum sample or CSF (cerebro spinal fluid) of the patient. This method was introduced in 2012.

However, these tests are useful in diagnosis only when the condition is severe.

Sources: Dengue Virus Net, WHO, WebMD, Wikipedia, Medindia, US National Library of Medicine, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare(India)