No abstract

The countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been dealing with dengue outbreaks for decades, being one of the regions with high dengue infection cases globally. These outbreaks are happening on top of the COVID-19 pandemic that is causing havoc among these ten countries. Both infectious diseases have caused a tremendous burden for the countries in the region-from infection control to the economic impact. This increasing number of cases happened with the contribution of the disruption in the pathogen-host-vector relationship, caused by the change of human behaviour during the pandemic period, and aggravated by the implementation of lockdowns and social distancing policies. These had several consequences, including limiting the coverage of dengue preventive programs and delaying the medical management of both diseases due to co-infection and misdiagnosis. It is of utmost importance to maintain the awareness of the population of both diseases and to devise strategies on dengue vector control to properly address the infection with digitalization and remote surveillance.Similarly, critical triage algorithms and further research are also needed to address co-infection and misdiagnosis. Management of COVID-19 using vaccination also should be optimized to subside the pandemic.

COVID-19 pandemic has become a global public health priority. The rapid increase in infection numbers, along with a significant number of deaths, has made the virus a serious threat to human health. Rapid, reliable, and simple diagnostic methods are critical to controlling the disease. While Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) is the current diagnostic gold standard, Reverse Transcriptase Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP) appears to be a compelling alternative diagnostic test due to its greater simplicity, shorter time to obtain a result, and lower cost. This study examined RT-LAMP application for rapid identification of SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to the RT-PCR assay. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted over six scientific databases in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Original studies published in English conducted on human clinical samples were included. Articles evaluating the sensitivity and specificity of RT-LAMP relative to RT-PCR were considered eligible. Quality assessment of bias and applicability was examined based on QUADAS-2. A total of 351 studies were found based on the keywords and search queries. Fourteen eligible case–control studies fit the mentioned criteria. Quality assessment using QUADAS-2 indicated alow risk of bias for all included studies. All case studies, containing 2,112 samples, had acumulative sensitivity of 95.5% (CI 97.5% = 90.8–97.9%) and cumulative specificity of 99.5% (CI 97.5% = 97.7–99.9%) . The RT-LAMP assay could be areliable alternative COVID-19 diagnostic method due to its reduced cost and processing time compared to RT-PCR. RT-LAMP could potentially be utilized during critical high-throughput and high-demand situations.