Detection of Multiple Dengue Infections by Rt-qPCR in West Sumatera, Indonesia

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Dengue is a disease caused by four distinct serotypes of dengue virus (DENV 1-4). DENV serotype differs from one another by 25–40% at the amino acid level. The detection of serotype is very important due to the fact that in secondary infection with heterologous serotype often leads to life threatening, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF)/dengue shock syndrome (DSS); likewise, an infection caused by two serotypes or more in one individual can contribute to the severity of infection.
 AIMS: The aims of the study were to detect the multiple dengue serotypes infection by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (Q-RT-PCR) and to determine the viral load in dengue infection.
 MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study applied the molecular examination for determining the serotype and viral load of DENV. The data were analyzed using Student’s t-test.
 RESULTS: A total of 119 samples, 91 samples showed positive dengue infection after amplification. The multiple dengue infection was found in 47 samples and 44 samples with single infection. There was a significant difference between the number of viral load DENV-2 and DENV-1 infection (p = 0.000).
 CONCLUSION: Two or more serotypes of dengue were found to infect a patient in West Sumatra. DENV-2 serotype was found predominantly in West Sumatra (n = 36, 39.56%) in patients with single infection. The molecular detection of dengue RNA by RT-PCR is a sensitive, rapid, and simple method. The RT-PCR method can detect the multiple dengue infection in clinical samples.