First Report of Detection of Dengue Virus in River Nile State, Shendi City, Sudan

Ghanem Mohammed Mahjaf¹, Leila Mohamed A. Abdelgader¹, Mosab Nouraldein Mohammed Hamad^2*

¹Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Shendi University, Sudan.

²Assistant professor, Microbiology department, Faculty of Medicine, Elsheikh Abdallah Elbadri University, Sudan.

Corresponding author:

Mosab Nouraldein Mohammed Hamad

Head of Parasitology Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, Elsheikh Abdallah Elbadri University, Sudan.

Corresponding Email: musab.noor13@gmail.com

mosab@eaeu.edu.sd

Abstract:

Dengue virus (DENV) is a flavivirus spread by vectors that affects around 390 million people annually, of whom 2.5 billion are at risk. Early diagnosis of dengue is required to identify an epidemic and implement effective vector control measures. Over the past 20 years, dengue outbreaks have occurred often in Sudan. Outbreaks of dengue hemorrhagic fever were reported in an outbreak in Port Sudan in 2005, with a 3.8% mortality. Recently, the detection of nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) antigen during the acute phase of disease in patients having primary and secondary infections has been studied in various laboratories across the world. NS1 is a highly conserved glycoprotein for all the serotypes and is produced in both cell membrane-associated and secreted forms. Dengue and malaria are two widespread mosquito-borne illnesses that have a high morbidity and mortality rate worldwide. The number of cases of both diseases is currently rising in Sudan and is associated with climate and environmental changes. The single NS1-positive Dengue case found in this study was a 30-year-old man from Shendi City, one of the biggest cities in the state of the Nile River; the participant had traveled and hadn’t been sick for two months before the study. Shendi is about 100 miles northeast of Khartoum on the eastern bank of the Nile River; there hasn’t been any history of arboviral outbreaks in Shendi, but neighboring provinces, Merawi and Karima, for example, saw an outbreak of yellow fever in 1989, and during the 2007 outbreak, they verified instances of Rift Valley disease. Fever, headaches, lethargy, and malaise are typical asymptomatic or non-specific symptoms of dengue and malaria infections. There is little data on co-infections between dengue and malaria, as well as how severe the two illnesses are in febrile patients in eastern Sudan. The preparedness and response to the outbreak especially at the community and decision-making (state) levels need further description and consideration due to the absence of previous assessment studies.

Keywords: NS1, Dengue fever, Malaria, Aedes aegypti