VIASURE Dengue Serotyping Real Time PCR Detection Kit is designed for specific identification of Dengue virus serotypes (DEN-1 to -4) in clinical samples from patients with signs and symptoms of Dengue virus infection.

This test is intended for use as an aid in the diagnosis and serotyping of the Dengue virus in combination with clinical and epidemiological risk factors.

RNA is extracted from specimens, amplified using RT-PCR and detected using fluorescent reporter dye probes specific for each Dengue virus serotype (DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and/or DEN-4).

Dengue virus (DENV) is a small single-stranded RNA virus comprising mainly four distinct serotypes (DEN-1 to -4). These closely related serotypes of the dengue virus belong to the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae, and are transmitted by Aedes sp. mosquitoes. An estimated 50 million dengue infections occur annually and approximately 2.5 billion people live in dengue endemic countries. In non‐endemic countries, dengue is one of the causes of febrile illness among travellers returning from tropical or subtropical areas of the Caribbean, Latin
America and Asia.

After an incubation period of 4-10 days, infection by any of the four virus serotypes can produce a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations spanning asymptomatic infection, dengue fever (DF), and severe dengue, a category that includes entities previously classified as dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS). Primary infection is thought to induce lifelong protective immunity to the infecting serotype. However, infection with one serotype of DENV confers only short-lived immunity against heterologous serotypes, after that a secondary infection with any of the remaining serotypes has been shown to be a significant risk factor for the development of DHF or DSS. In particular, “Asian” genotypes of DEN-2 and DEN-3 are frequently associated with severe disease accompanying secondary dengue infections.

Given the geographic expansion of DENV1-4, rapid and accurate serotyping of DENV is crucial for dengue diagnosis and epidemiologic surveillance, treatment of patients, control of DENV outbreaks and transmissionblocking strategies targeting the vector, as well as for development of vaccines and antivirals. Thus, this two tube multiplex Real Time RT-PCR assay can be used as a method for differential diagnosis of a specific DEN serotype in viremic dengue patients during the early phase of the infection.