Evaluation of Diagnostic Performance of a Multiplex RT-qPCR Method for Detecting DENV Serotypes and CHIKV in Clinical Samples, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Introduction: Arbovirus diseases such as dengue and chikungunya threaten public health worldwide. Early and rapid diagnosis and surveillance of dengue virus (DENV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infections are essential to the control of these diseases. In this study, we evaluate the diagnostic performance of our new in-house multiplex RT-qPCR method for detecting DENV serotypes and CHIKV in an external laboratory. Methodology: The evaluation study was conducted on 200 clinical samples of suspected patients for arbovirus disease infection, collected in Centre de Recherche Biomoléculaire Pietro Annigoni (CERBA), Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Our new multiplex RT-qPCR was compared to the commercial kit, the Zika, Dengue, and Chikungunya (ZDC) Real-Time PCR Assays kit (Bio-Rad, California, USA). Results and Conclusions: Among 200 samples, 21.5% (43/200) were DENV-positive by multiplex RT-qPCR, and 21.5% (43/200) were also DENV-positive by reference real-time RT-PCR. 157 (78.5%) samples tested negative for DENV by both tests (new mRT-qPCR and reference test). The sensitivity and specificity of mRT-qPCR were 100%. The DENV serotypes detected were DENV-1 60.5% (26/43) and DENV-3 39.5% (17/43). CHIKV was not detected in this study. Our new mRT-qPCR is sensitive, cost-effective, simple, and can be used in developing country laboratories.