Changing Circulating Dengue Virus Serotypes In Malwa Region of Punjab, India During 2019–2021- An Observational Study

Abstract

Dengue is the fast evolving mosquito-borne viral diseases which pose a significant public health problem in developing countries. India is among one of the dengue endemic country having co-circulation of all four-dengue virus (DENV) serotypes. This retrospective study has focused on the epidemiological and serotypic distribution trends of DF outbreaks that occurred in Punjab during systematic surveillance from 2019 to 2021. A total of 400 acute serum specimens collected during 2019-2021 were analyzed for serotype analysis by TaqMan Real Time RT-PCR. The predominance of DENV-2 (80%) was observed in 2019 that follow the dwindling pattern. A decreasing trend of DENV-2 population was seen in samples under study and it is replaced by DENV-3 from 2019-2021. Incidence of DENV-4 is sporadic among the study population. Coinfection with more than one serotype was witnessed in the present study. DEN-1,3 was seen to be the most common dual infection constituting 81% incidence rate (39/48 cases) during 2020 and 2021. The change in serotype in a particular geographical region might attribute to the risk of increased frequency and magnitude of outbreaks in the future.