Serotype-specific Differences among Patients of Dengue Fever Admitted to a Tertiary Care Hospital in Western Maharashtra

Abstract Context: Dengue is the most prevalent vector-borne disease affecting 100–400 million individuals every year. Dengue virus (DENV) has four main serotypes (DENV 1-4) with a 5th one being discovered in Malaysia in 2013. Previous studies have shown DENV 2 and DENV 3 to be the predominant serotypes in the region. Aim: We planned to carry out the serotyping of the DENV from the sera of admitted patients to determine the prevailing serotype between October 2022 and December 2022 and study their clinical and laboratory parameters. Materials and Methods: All patients admitted to our hospital with an acute febrile illness of 2–7-day duration with a positive dengue serology (NS1 antigen or dengue immunoglobulin M antibody positivity by rapid immunochromatographic card test) were recruited for the study and underwent typing of dengue serotypes by multiplex reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results: Out of 131 patients, 118 were positive for DENV infection by multiplex RT-PCR. 34.7% had DENV 1, 60.2% had DENV 2, and 5.1% had DENV 3, whereas no cases for DENV 4 were found. The most common clinical features across all serotypes were fever, headache, nausea, and vomiting. DENV 2 infection was significantly associated with severe thrombocytopenia (P = 0.010). 71.18% of cases had raised liver transaminases without any significant differences among serotypes. Seven cases had coinfection of dengue and chikungunya virus. Conclusion: DENV 2 seems to be the prevalent serotype among patients admitted with dengue fever in Western Maharashtra.