Dengue fever is an infectious tropical disease and belongs to the haemorrhagic fevers. It is caused by an infection with the dengue virus (DENV). The clinical diagnosis of dengue is particularly difficult as there are a large number of pathologic agents which cause infectious diseases with similar symptoms in the early stage of the illness. In the acute stage of the disease, the laboratory diagnosis of dengue is established using a direct detection method like PCR or NS1 antigen test, whilst indirect methods like tests for the detection of antibodies are used in later stages of the illness.

The highly specific NS1 antigen from DENV is detectable in the serum of infected patients from onset of the clinical symptoms. This is the case in primary as well as in reinfections. The detection of NS1 using ELISA is therefore an important tool for the diagnosis of acute dengue infections and is increasingly used in dengue diagnosis, in parallel to the detection of specific antibodies.

In the detection of antibodies, the exclusion of possible cross reactions with other anti-flavivirus antibodies and the differential diagnosis from other arbovirus infections constitute a challenge. The Flavovirus IIFT Mosaic and the Arbovirus Fever Mosaic 1 from EUROIMMUN are especially suitable for this application.

EUROIMMUN offers the following tests for the diagnosis of dengue virus infections: