Dengue virus

The dengue virus (DENV) is the cause of dengue fever. It is a mosquito-borne single positive-stranded RNA virus of the family Flaviviridae; genus Flavivirus. Five serotypes of the virus have been found, all of which can cause the full spectrum of disease. Nevertheless, scientists are finding their understanding of dengue virus may be simplistic, as rather than distinct antigenic groups in space and time there appears to be a continuum. This same study identified 47 strains of dengue virus. Additionally, coinfection with and lack of rapid tests for zika virus and chikungunya complicate matters in real world infections.

Its genome is about 11000 bases that codes for three structural proteins (capsid protein C, membrane protein M, envelope protein E) and seven nonstructural proteins (NS1, NS2a, NS2b, NS3, NS4a, NS4b, NS5). It also includes short non-coding regions on both the 5' and 3' ends. Further classification of each serotype into genotypes often relates to the region where particular strains are commonly found or were first found.