Community Based Surveillance to Estimate Incidence & Sero prevalence of Acute Febrile Illness with focus on Dengue & Chikungunya – A Prospective Multi-centric Cohort Study.

In view of the rising threat of Dengue infections in the country, the incidence needs to be estimated using cohort study design. Various initiatives have been taken up -both by private and public entities for developing novel vaccines for tackling dengue fever for which sero-surveillance is necessary. Thus this study will support these initiatives to understand the burden of the disease in the county .We are proposing this community based prospective cohort study   under DBT’s Resource of Indian Vaccine Epidemiology Network (DRIVEN) funded by National Biopharma Mission, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Department of Biotechnology India. The proposed study aims to assess the incidence of dengue fever over a period of 1 year. Although the sample size is not powered for other disease indications (Chikungunya, Malaria, Typhoid, Leptospirosis, Scrub typhus), the study will also estimate the incidence of Chikungunya, Malaria, Typhoid, Leptospirosis, Scrub typhus and proportion of asymptomatic infections, secondary infections as well as describe the circulating dengue and Chikungunya serotypes in the study area by lab confirmation of fever cases during the study period of one year. The epidemiological data generated in the study will be useful in designing future vaccine trials, and conducting the trials and their impact assessment.