DETECTION OF NS1 DENGUE ANTIGEN INSUSPECTED DENGUE FEVER CASES ATTENDING TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL AND CORRELATE THE PRESENCE OFNS1 ANTIGENWITH THEDURATION AND SEVERITYOF ILLNESS

Background:Dengue virus infection is one of oldest disease, and globally remerging mosquito borne disease. Dengue viruses belong to the members of the genus Flavivirus within the family Flaviviridae.Patients presenting with acute dengue disease may be Viraemic, but may not have developed antibodies. Early diagnosis depends mostly on detection of viral components such as the RNA. This study aims at determining NSI positivity and correlation with the duration of illness. Methods: A total of 489 fever cases consisting of both outpatient and inpatients with Clinical presention suggestive of Probable Dengue were included in the study. The blood samples were collected. NS1 antigen ELISA procedure was done for the serum samples using Panbio ELISA kit by strictly following the manufactures protocol. Descriptive analyses were performed to calculate means and standard deviation for continuous variable and relative frequency for categorical variable. Results: The test showed 47 cases reactive for dengue NS1 among them, 29 cases were detected in1-5 days, 17 cases were detected in 6-10 days and only one case was detected after 10 days. Applying Anovaparametric test showed that the increased value of Panbio units is associated with severity of disease