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.