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. 2017 Dec:97:44-49.
doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2017.10.015. Epub 2017 Nov 3.

Outbreak of chikungunya virus in a vulnerable population of Sergipe, Brazil-A molecular and serological survey

Marielton Dos Passos Cunha  1 , Cliomar Alves Dos Santos  2 , Daniel Ferreira de Lima Neto  1 , Alessandra Soares Schanoski  3 , Shahab Zaki Pour  1 , Saulo Duarte Passos  4 , Mércia Simone Feitosa de Souza  5 , Danuza Duarte Costa  2 , Paolo Marinho de Andrade Zanotto  6
Affiliations

Outbreak of chikungunya virus in a vulnerable population of Sergipe, Brazil-A molecular and serological survey

Marielton Dos Passos Cunha et al. J Clin Virol. 2017 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a re-emerging arbovirus that is causing outbreaks in several countries of the Americas. The virus was introduced in Brazil in 2014, and since then, several Brazilian states have notified autochthonous cases.

Objectives: Provide additional evidence on a CHIKV outbreak and an outline of the laboratory and clinical profile of symptomatic patients in Sergipe, Brazil.

Study design: In February 2016, we collected 142 serum samples from symptomatic patients for arboviruses in Sergipe, Brazil. All samples were submitted to qRT-PCR for the emerging arboviruses circulating in Brazil - ZIKV, CHIKV, and DENV - and later submitted to the immunoenzymatic assay. RNA positive samples were randomly selected and sequenced for characterization of the genotype involved in the outbreak.

Results: Our study had 75.35% (107/142) positivity for CHIKV infection, with all age groups and genera being equally infected. The virus was identified in 11 of the 13 cities studied in that state, including the ECSA genotype. Importantly, fever was the only statistically significant symptoms for CHIKV infection (p<0.05), while asthenia was significantly associated with symptomatic patients that were CHIKV-negative (p<0.05).

Conclusions: Our findings support the importance of fever as a clinical marker and contribute to molecular and serological surveillance data, which may help in the understanding of CHIKV circulation, emergence and clinical description.

Keywords: Chikungunya virus; Infection; Re-emerging arbovirus.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests

None.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Map of the state of Sergipe and its localization in Brazil with the origin location of all patients.
(A) Map with the location of the state of Sergipe in the Brazilian territory. (B) The state of Sergipe is located in the Northeast Region and is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the states of Bahia to the west and south, and Alagoas to the north.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Threshold cycle according to days of symptoms in positive patients.
The initial phase of infection with low dispersion and CT (cycle threshold) values, and increase in both parameters, CT, and dispersion, during the final viremia. Boxplots represent the 75th percentile, median, 25th percentile and the whiskers extend to the highest and lowest value in the 1.5x interquartile range.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Maximum likelihood phylogeny of CHIKV partial E1-3’NTR region sequences.
The dataset consist in 36 CHIKV sequences with: West African genotype (n = 5), Asian genotype (n = 7), ECSA genotype (n = 19) and the sequences generated in this study (n = 5). All sequences used are labeled in the format: genotype/accession number/country/year of isolation. Bootstrap scores are shown next to well-supported nodes and the phylogeny was midpoint rooted. The Brazilian sequences belonging to the ECSA genotype are highlighted in blue, and the sequences characterized in the present study from Sergipe-2016 are highlighted with the dot in black color.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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