A NITROCELLULOSE MEMBRANE-BASED IGM CAPTURE ENZYME-IMMUNOASSAY FOR ETIOLOGIC DIAGNOSIS OF DENGUE VIRUS-INFECTIONS

A nitrocellulose membrane based immunoassay for the detection of dengu e virus specific IgM suitable for use in field situations or in periph eral laboratories would be useful for disease surveillance and control . This paper describes such an assay in an IgM capture format (MAC DOT ) similar to the microplate based MAC ELISAs currently in use in sever al research and reference laboratories around the world. The MAC DOT w as tested on several sample sets including a retrospective study of 11 9 patients from Children's Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand, with confirmed dengue infection. The sensitivity of the test was shown to be 94% tak ing only admission sera into consideration but rising to 99% when both an admission and a discharge specimen were considered. Other sample s ets confirmed the high sensitivity and a study of 494 unselected febri le children showed that the specificity of the MAC DOT was 98%.