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. 2024 Dec;30(12):3509-3521.
doi: 10.1038/s41591-024-03300-3. Epub 2024 Sep 18.

Human outbreaks of a novel reassortant Oropouche virus in the Brazilian Amazon region

Felipe Gomes Naveca  1   2 Tatiana Amaral Pires de Almeida  3   4 Victor Souza  3 Valdinete Nascimento  3 Dejanane Silva  3 Fernanda Nascimento  3 Matilde Mejía  3 Yasmin Silva de Oliveira  3 Luisa Rocha  5 Natana Xavier  5 Janis Lopes  5 Rodrigo Maito  5 Cátia Meneses  5 Tatyana Amorim  6 Luciana Fé  6 Fernanda Sindeaux Camelo  6 Samyly Coutinho de Aguiar Silva  6 Alexsandro Xavier de Melo  6 Leíse Gomes Fernandes  6 Marco Aurélio Almeida de Oliveira  7 Ana Ruth Arcanjo  7 Guilherme Araújo  7 Walter André Júnior  7 Renata Lia Coragem de Carvalho  7 Rosiane Rodrigues  8 Stella Albuquerque  8 Cristiane Mattos  8 Ciciléia Silva  8 Aline Linhares  8 Taynã Rodrigues  9 Francy Mariscal  9 Márcia Andréa Morais  10 Mayra Marinho Presibella  11 Nelson Fernando Quallio Marques  11 Anne Paiva  12 Karina Ribeiro  12 Deusilene Vieira  13 Jackson Alves da Silva Queiroz  13 Ana Maísa Passos-Silva  13 Lígia Abdalla  14 João Hugo Santos  15 Regina Maria Pinto de Figueiredo  16 Ana Cecília Ribeiro Cruz  17 Livia Neves Casseb  17 Jannifer Oliveira Chiang  17 Livia Vinhal Frutuoso  18 Agata Rossi  19 Lucas Freitas  20 Túlio de Lima Campos  21 Gabriel Luz Wallau  21   22 Emerson Moreira  23 Roberto Dias Lins Neto  21 Laura W Alexander  24 Yining Sun  25 Ana Maria Bispo de Filippis  26 Tiago Gräf  27 Ighor Arantes  26 Ana I Bento  25 Edson Delatorre  19 Gonzalo Bello  28
Affiliations

Human outbreaks of a novel reassortant Oropouche virus in the Brazilian Amazon region

Felipe Gomes Naveca et al. Nat Med. 2024 Dec.

Abstract

The Brazilian western Amazon is experiencing its largest laboratory-confirmed Oropouche virus (OROV) outbreak, with more than 6,300 reported cases between 2022 and 2024. In this study, we sequenced and analyzed 382 OROV genomes from human samples collected in Amazonas, Acre, Rondônia and Roraima states, between August 2022 and February 2024, to uncover the origin and genetic evolution of OROV in the current outbreak. Genomic analyses revealed that the upsurge of OROV cases in the Brazilian Amazon coincides with spread of a novel reassortant lineage containing the M segment of viruses detected in the eastern Amazon region (2009-2018) and the L and S segments of viruses detected in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador (2008-2021). The novel reassortant likely emerged in the Amazonas state between 2010 and 2014 and spread through long-range dispersion events during the second half of the 2010s. Phylodynamics reconstructions showed that the current OROV spread was driven mainly by short-range (< 2 km) movements consistent with the flight range of vectors. Nevertheless, a substantial proportion (22%) of long-range (>10 km) OROV migrations were also detected, consistent with viral dispersion by humans. Our data provide a view of the unprecedented spread and evolution of OROV in the Brazilian western Amazon region.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors declare that no conflicts of interest exist.

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