Dados do Trabalho

Título

Monitoring the genetic diversity of reemerging chikungunya virus in Brazil

Introdução

In recent years, the Brazilian territory has been the site of events of emergence and reemergence of arboviruses such as Yellow Fever (YFV), Zika (ZIKV), Chikungunya (CHIKV), and Dengue (DENV) viruses, causing a huge impact on public health. The 2014 emergence of the Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) has raised serious concerns due to the virus’ rapid dissemination into new geographic areas and the clinical features associated with infection. According to the Ministry of Health, as of epidemiological week 14 of 2022, 17,497 laboratory-confirmed cases of CHIKV infections were reported across the country.

Objetivo(s)

We aimed to investigate the genetic diversity and possible distribution patterns of the chikungunya virus circulating in Brazil.

Material e Métodos

Faced with this scenario of the reemergence of arboviruses in Brazil, we carried out on-site training activities in genomic surveillance in partnership with the National Network of Public Health Laboratories and the Pan American Health Organization-PAHO/WHO. During these activities, we used portable nanopore sequencing technology.

Resultados e Conclusão

We generated 425 CHIKV genomes from clinical samples from the states of Alagoas (n=3), Bahia (n=102), Goiás (n=40), Paraíba (n= 23), Paraná (n=14), Pernambuco (n=16), Piauí (n=92), Maranhão (n=38), Minas Gerais (n=8), Mato Grosso do Sul (n=2), Rio Grande do Norte (n=43), and Sergipe (n=44). The generated sequences presented an average of 90,9% coverage of the viral genome and the phylogenetic analysis revealed that they belong to the East-Central-South-Africa lineage. This lineage has a wide distribution in Brazil, as demonstrated in previous studies. Although preliminary, the results presented here show the importance of using DNA sequencing technology in collaboration with the state’s epidemiological surveillance office to monitor the genetic diversity of CHIKV circulating in Brazil.

Palavras-chave

Chikungunya virus; Genomic epidemiology; Arbovirus; MinION sequencing