Molecular Epidemiology of Dengue Virus Infection among Febrile Patients in Ilorin, Nigeria

Abstract

Dengue is one of the viruses that has been established to be responsible for many febrile cases but most febrile illnesses are often misdiagnosed as malaria and typhoid in Nigeria due to the endemicity of malaria and typhoid. Most of the available data on the circulation of dengue virus in Nigeria were obtained from the less specific and less sensitive serological investigations. We assessed the prevalence of dengue virus and determined its association between socio-demographic factors in three health facilities in three local governments in Ilorin, Nigeria. This cross-sectional study therefore employed molecular technique to provide a specific and more sensitive data on the prevalence of dengue virus infection among febrile patients in Ilorin, Nigeria. We recruited 110 febrile patients from three health facilities in three local governments Areas within Ilorin Metropolis. The patients' blood were collected and transferred immediately to the Molecular Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, University of Ilorin for Molecular analysis. One-step RT-PCR was performed using Bosphore Dengue-Chikungunya Detection Kit to detect the presence of dengue virus RNA in the blood of the recruited patients.

The results showed 8.2% positive for RT -qPCR detection of dengue virus with no statistically significant relationship between all tested socio-demographic factors. Specifically, 12.5% of patients recruited from General Hospital, Ilorin were positive for RT-qPCR detection of dengue virus infection, 6.7% from Civil Service Hospital Ilorin and 3.13% from University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital. We recommend routine procedural investigations for Dengue virus infection among patients with febrile illness in our hospitals.