Awareness of changing trends in epidemiology of dengue fever is essential for epidemiological surveillance

Dengue has become endemic in India with outbreaks occurring almost every year. The seroprevalence and serotypic data of the last 7 years in samples obtained from suspected dengue patients from a tertiary care hospital were analyzed. Out of 7846 serum samples received in the virology laboratory from suspected dengue cases during 2002 to 2008, 2366 (30.15%) were serologically confi rmed. Serotyping was done using mRT-PCR. All the four serotypes were detected in 2003, while data in 2004, 2005 and 2006 revealed the the predominance of Den-3.