In an effort to further its seasonal disease surveillance system, theAndhra PradeshHealth department has extended the dengue MAC-ELISA testing facility to 54 sentinel surveillance hospitals (SSHs), including all government general hospitals/medical colleges, district hospitals, and area hospitals. The diagnostic testing was available at only 19 SSHs in AP back in 2015.
The lgM capture ELISA (MAC-ELISA) is conducted for confirmation of dengue infection due to its high sensitivity. However, as these SSHs doubled up as Covid-19 treatment facilities both in 2020 and 2021, including some as state-level Covid-19 hospitals to treat only emergency cases, the state recorded only 964 dengue infections in 2020 and 4,767 cases in 2021.