Syed Mustafeel Aser Quadri, Mahjabeen Khan, Ghulam Fatima, Nikhat Yasmin Siddique.
Association of Seroprevalence with Demographic Characteristics of Dengue Viral Infection in a Megacity, Karachi, Pakistan.
Ann Abbasi Shaheed Hosp Karachi Med Dent Coll Jan ;22(03):171-8.

Objective: To determine the association between demographic characteristics as risk factors for seroprevalence of dengue viral infection in an urban community of a megacity, Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in a dengue endemic area of a megacity, Karachi. Simple random sampling was used for selecting 378 research subjects. Gadap town consists of 13 union councils. Three union councils in the periurban area of Gadap Town, Karachi were randomly selected initially. A total of 200 houses (lady health worker had full data on each house) were observed. The inclusion criteria was active adult (18-55 years), both genders, resident of union council 1 and 3 in Gadap town, Karachi for at least 5 years. The exclusion criteria was severe comorbidities. The study was conducted in between January 2014 and January 2015. The data included demographic characteristics and their association with seroprevalence by enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect anti-dengue immunoglobulin G (IgG) and M (IgM) antibody. Initially patients presented with high fever, rashes, severe headache, joint pain, nausea, vomiting and thrombocytopenia. All patients were subjected to serological examination. The sociodemographic variables were analysed on SPSS version 15. Result: A total of 378 cases were analysed. There were 126 (33.3%) cases positive for anti-dengue IgG and IgM antibody. Females were more affected, 266 (70.4%) and commonest age group affected in these adults was between 37-54 years, 143 (37.8%). A significant association at p-value<0.5 was found in gender, ethnicity, marital status, primary education and unemployed subjects with seropositive tests. Conclusion: About one-third of the sample had an association between demographic characteristics as risk factors for seroprevalence of dengue viral infection in an urban community of the megacity, Karachi, which can be used for preventive strategies in future to control dengue fever in the community. Keyword: Seroprevalence, demography, risk factors, dengue virus, urban health.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com