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Vitamin D Deficiency is Associated With Dengue Severity in Pediatric Cases, Eastern India
Sagnika Samal1, Manoj Kumar Dash1, Chinmay Kumar Behera2
1School of Biotechnology, KIIT-Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar 751024, Odisha, India.
Insights
Vitamin D deficiency is linked to severe dengue in children. Maintaining sufficient vitamin D levels may protect against severe dengue fever outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Immunology
- Infectious Diseases
- Nutritional Science
Background:
- Vitamin D modulates immune responses crucial for childhood immunity.
- Dengue poses a significant health threat to children globally.
- Understanding factors influencing dengue severity is critical for effective management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between serum 25(OH)D levels and dengue severity in pediatric patients.
- To determine if vitamin D status impacts dengue fever (DF), dengue with warning signs (DWS), and severe dengue (SD) outcomes.
- To elucidate the role of vitamin D metabolite 25(OH)D in the immune response to dengue virus (DENV) infection.
Main Methods:
- Assessed serum 25(OH)D levels in 280 pediatric dengue cases.
- Stratified patients into DF, DWS, and SD groups.
- Utilized qRT-PCR for dengue virus (DENV) serotyping and statistical analysis to correlate 25(OH)D levels with disease severity.
Main Results:
- Dengue virus (DENV)-2 was the predominant serotype identified.
- Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency were significantly associated with severe dengue (SD) (p < 0.05).
- Patients diagnosed with SD showed higher rates of vitamin D deficiency (46.25%) and insufficiency (53.75%) compared to DF and DWS.
Conclusions:
- Serum 25(OH)D sufficiency demonstrates a protective effect against severe dengue in children.
- Vitamin D status may serve as a determinant for dengue virus (DENV) infection outcomes in pediatric populations.
- Monitoring and ensuring adequate vitamin D levels could be a potential strategy to mitigate dengue severity.
Abstract:
Vitamin D is an important modulator of host immune response during immunity development in context to several diseases in children. This study included 280 pediatric dengue cases, which were further stratified as dengue fever (DF), dengue with warning signs (DWS), and severe dengue (SD), wherein naturally circulating vitamin D metabolite, 25(OH)D was assessed, followed by statistical analysis for elucidating the role of serum 25(OH)D in dengue severity. qRT-PCR based serotyping showed that dengue virus (DENV)-2 was the major circulating DENV serotype in the patients. Among DENV cases, 92 (32.86%), 108 (38.57%), and 80 (28.57%) were diagnosed with DF, DWS, and SD, respectively. Among SD patients, serum 25(OH)D deficiency and insufficiency were observed in 37 (46.25%) and 43 (53.75%) patients, respectively, and found to be significantly associated with SD (p < 0.05) in comparison to DF and DWS. Serum 25(OH)D sufficiency had a protective effect against dengue severity and could be a determinant for DENV outcome in children.
