Dengue Fever Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Dengue Fever, including details on symptoms, risk factors, diagnosis, treatment, prevention.

Seroprevalence of dengue antibodies, annual incidence and risk factors among children in southern Vietnam.

Thai KT, Binh TQ, Giao PT, Phuong HL, Hung le Q, Van Nam N, Nga TT, Groen J, Nagelkerke N, de Vries PJ

Division of Infectious Diseases, Tropical Medicine and AIDS, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Dengue is highly endemic in southern Vietnam and all four serotypes of dengue virus have already been identified. To determine the age-specific prevalence of dengue and associated risk factors, we conducted a serological study at two primary schools and assessed risk factors by analysing children's questionnaires and household surveys. Sera were collected from 961 primary schoolchildren in Binh Thuan Province and tested for the presence of dengue virus serum antibodies using an indirect immunoglobulin G (IgG) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The antibody prevalence of the total population was 65.7% (n=631) which increased from 53.0 to 88.2% with age. The annual incidence of a first dengue infection, estimated by binary regression of the seroprevalence by age, was 11.7%. Interestingly, the prevalence of dengue IgG antibodies was significantly higher in children who confirmed using a pit latrine (RR 1.467, 95% CI: 1.245-1.730) and whose domestic environment contained discarded cans (RR 1.238, 95% CI: 1.042-1.470) and pigs (RR 1.228, 95% CI: 1.002-1.504). The epidemiology of dengue in southern Vietnam is stable with a constantly high annual incidence of first infections. Transmission occurs mainly peri-domestically, which has important public health implications.

Published 5 April 2005 in Trop Med Int Health, 10(4): 379-86.
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