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. 2024 Feb 14;229(2):443-447.
doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiad322.

Sequence Data From a Travel-Associated Case of Microcephaly Highlight a Persisting Risk due to Zika Virus Circulation in Thailand

Solène Marquine  1   2   3 , Guillaume André Durand  1   2   3 , Gabriela Modenesi  4 , Siham Khouadhria  5 , Géraldine Piorkowski  2 , Cyril Badaut  1   2 , Thomas Canivez  1   2   3 , Xavier De Lamballerie  2   3 , Gilda Grard  1   2   3 , Raphaëlle Klitting  2   3
Affiliations

Sequence Data From a Travel-Associated Case of Microcephaly Highlight a Persisting Risk due to Zika Virus Circulation in Thailand

Solène Marquine et al. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Zika virus has been circulating in Thailand since 2002 through continuous but likely low-level circulation. Here, we describe an infection in a pregnant woman who traveled to Thailand and South America during her pregnancy. By combining phylogenetic analysis with the patient's travel history and her pregnancy timeline, we confirmed that she likely got infected in Thailand at the end of 2021. This imported case of microcephaly highlights that Zika virus circulation in the country still constitutes a health risk, even in a year of lower incidence.

Main points: Here we trace the origin of travel-acquired microcephaly to Thailand, providing additional evidence that pre-American lineages of Zika virus can harm the fetus and highlighting that Zika virus constitutes a health threat even in a year of lower incidence.

Keywords: NGS; Thailand; Zika virus; microcephaly; phylogenetic.

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Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflicts of interest . All authors: No reported conflicts. All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Timeline of the patient’s pregnancy, travels, and medical examinations. The pregnancy is shown by trimester (gray boxes) and week (ticks on the time axis). The trips made by the patient are shown by the green boxes, and the medical examinations that she underwent are detailed above the time arrow. The examinations and tests that yielded normal results are highlighted in blue, and those that revealed anomalies are highlighted in orange. ct, cycle threshold; IgG, immunoglobulin G; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; ZIKV, Zika virus.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Situation of the patient sample among ZIKV sequences sampled globally. Phylogeny of ZIKV species obtained by a maximum likelihood approach under a GTR + F + R4 nucleotide substitution model implemented in iqtree2. Branch support was assessed with ultrafast bootstrap approximation (UFBoot2, 1000 replicates). The Asian and African genotypes are highlighted on the tree with gray semiellipses, and the American clade is highlighted by a purple semiellipse. The tip corresponding to the sequence obtained from the fetal biopsy is represented by a red square, while viral sequences sampled in Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Japan are represented by yellow circles, light blue diamonds, purple pentagons, and dark blue triangles, respectively. Collapsed clades and tips corresponding to sequences from other locations are shown in gray. ZIKV, Zika virus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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