Authors: Shilpi Hora, Parul Salunke, Sita Shivram
Background: Dengue, mosquito borne acute febrile viral illness has evolved as a global life threatening public health concern in South east Asia affecting around 2.5 billion individuals in more than 100 countries. Aim: The study was conducted to compare commercially available NS1 Ag card test with IgM Capture ELISA. Materials and Methods: A total of 521 clinically suspected cases of dengue were tested by Rapid Card test and Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Results: Confirmed dengue positive cases by these methods were 228.A total of 222 cases were found to be positive by Card test. Out of these 222 positive samples, 61 (27.5%) were positive for NS1 antigen only. A total of 123 cases were positive for IgM by ELISA (99 for IgM only and 24 for IgM + IgG) as compared to 117 cases by rapid card test. Thus six cases (2.6%) of IgM positivity were missed by the rapid card test. Conclusion: Immunochromatographic testing (ICT) can prove to be a very useful tool for especially in resource poor settings, such as in the peripheral health care center. On the other hand, in tertiary care hospitals, where a large number of samples are to be tested and the technical expertise is available, ELISA can be very effective in diagnosis of dengue infection. Keywords: Dengue Fever, ELISA, NS1 Ag.
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