Seropositivity to Dengue and Associated Risk Factors among Acute Febrile Patients in Arba Minch Districts, Southern Ethiopia

Dengue is a rapidly emerging arthropod-borne viral infection, which causes a considerable illness and death worldwide. It is, an ancient disease known with different names: Exotic Dengue, Mediterranean Dengue, West Africa Dengue, Twelve Day Fever and Congolese Red Fever, is an emerging infection. However, little is known regarding the epidemiology of dengue virus infection in Ethiopia where other mosquito-borne diseases are common. While all other flavi viruses are zoonotic, DENV that cause most human disease maintain the anthroponotic cycle and they exclusively utilize humans as reservoir and amplification hosts. Infection activate protective immunity but confers only limited and short - term protection against subsequent infection by the other serotypes. The clinical features of dengue infection are mimic many other diseases, therefore can be easily misinterpreted. In addition, a dengue patient may have a co-infection with another pathogen; therefore laboratories test may provide quick and reliable diagnosis. Yet, data from diverse geographical settings in Ethiopia on the prevalence of dengue virus infection hardly exist.

Thus, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of dengue virus exposure and its associated risk factors among acute febrile patients in Arba minch districts in Southern Ethiopia, which would be of paramount importance to inform decision makers, service providers and other concerned bodies for possible interventions. This could contribute to the build-up of national data base to estimate the burden of the disease and its implications to the health system. The data generated from this study can also be used as baseline data for further studies on individual, social and environmental risk-modeling for informed decision making for control planning.