Evaluation of efficacy of various immunochromatographic rapid tests for dengue diagnosis

Objective: the immunochromatographic rapid tests facilitate the early diagnosis of dengue by providing evidence of the presence of virus specific proteins (antigens/ antibody) in human blood. many products for rapid dengue diagnosis are available in the market; the performance of few selected products was evaluated and compared with enzyme linked immuno sorbent assays (elisa). methods: sera from a large number of patients (n=184) admitted to national institute of blood diseases & bone marrow transplantation (nibd) were used to determine the efficiency of non-structural (ns) 1, iga, igg and igm based rapid test devices for dengue diagnosis. results: the dengue ns1 antigen based device was least efficient while among the antibody based devices the dengue iga rapid test (rdt) was comparatively better (specificity: 80.95%; sensitivity: 85.21%). this device could detect both primary and secondary dengue infection and was found to be the most sensitive device at all point of sample collection. conclusion: the dengue iga rdt could be a cost effective and efficient rapid test device for timely dengue diagnosis at all levels of healthcare settings.