The Health Department, in association with the World Health Organisation, is launching a study on dengue sero-prevalence in Kerala and associated factors.
The study is said to be the first ever on dengue to be initiated by the WHO in the region and it will be held in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Kozhikode districts. A team from WHO is expected to visit the State soon to review the study protocol and methodology, it is learnt.
The year-long study, which will focus on the sero-prevalence of dengue in the community, vector studies as well as virus genomic studies, is being coordinated by the community medicine department of the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, (GMCT).
The Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB); Vector Control Research Centre; Kottayam (a field station of the Indian Council of Medical Research); State Public Health Laboratory; and Department of Microbiology, GMCT; will also be the technical collaborators for the study.
School-based surveillance studies
Phase I of the study would involve school-based surveillance studies for assessing community-level dengue sero-prevalence among 9-12-year-olds as well as vector studies in localities. A total of 4,000 or more samples are expected to be assessed for sero-prevalence in this phase.
A sub-set of these samples would be sent to the RGCB for conducting the Plaque Reduction Neutralisation (PRN) Assay studies.
PRN Assay would be necessary to identify the dengue sero-types from the dengue antibodies in each blood sample. This would clearly indicate the dengue sero-types in circulation in Kerala.
In Phase II, a hospital-based prospective study of dengue patients is being planned, wherein dengue virus would be isolated from the serum samples for genomic sequencing.
“ For years, we have been speculating whether it is the mutation of the dengue virus which is responsible for the severity of the epidemics in certain seasons, as in the 2017 epidemic,” E. Sreekumar, senior scientist, RGCB, told The Hindu .
He said the study would be a huge opportunity for the State to unravel the science behind the annual burden of dengue mortality and morbidity.
