Confirmation of Zika virus infection through hospital-based sentinel surveillance of acute febrile illness in Uganda,  2014-2017

Abstract

Zika virus (ZIKV), transmitted by Aedes species mosquitoes, was first isolated in Uganda in 1947. From February 2014 to October 2017, the Uganda Virus Research Institute, in collaboration with the US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, conducted arbovirus surveillance in acute febrile illness (AFI) patients at St Francis hospital in Nkonkonjeru. Three hundred and eighty-four serum samples were collected and tested for IgM antibodies to yellow fever virus (YFV), West Nile virus (WNV), dengue virus (DENV), chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and ZIKV. Of the 384 samples, 5 were positive for ZIKV IgM. Of these five, three were confirmed by plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT) to be ZIKV infections. Of the remaining two, one was determined to be a non-specific flavivirus infection and one was confirmed to be alphavirus-positive by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). This study provides the first evidence of laboratory-confirmed ZIKV infection in Uganda in five decades, and emphasizes the need to enhance sentinel surveillance.

Keywords: Arbovirus; Zika virus; confirmation; hospital-based; plaque reduction neutralization test; sentinel surveillance.