Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease (Jun 2023)

Emergence of a New Strain of DENV-2 in South America: Introduction of the Cosmopolitan Genotype through the Brazilian-Peruvian Border

  • Murilo Tavares Amorim,
  • Leonardo H. Almeida Hernández,
  • Felipe Gomes Naveca,
  • Ivy Tsuya Essashika Prazeres,
  • Ana Lucia Monteiro Wanzeller,
  • Eliana Vieira Pinto da Silva,
  • Livia M. Neves Casseb,
  • Fábio Silva da Silva,
  • Sandro Patroca da Silva,
  • Bruno Tardelli Diniz Nunes,
  • Ana Cecília Ribeiro Cruz

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed8060325
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 6
p. 325

Abstract

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Dengue virus 2 (DENV-2) seriously contributes to dengue-related mortality. It includes five nonsylvatic genotypes, with cosmopolitan being the most widespread with a significant contribution to the total number of DENV-2 cases globally. In South America, the cosmopolitan genotype was first recorded in 2019 in Madre de Dios, Peru, and then in Goiás (Midwest Brazil) in November 2021. In this study, we tested 163 human serum samples from Acre (Northern Brazil) collected during a DENV outbreak between 2020 and 2021 for all DENV genotypes by RT-qPCR. Of the 163 samples, 139 were positive for DENV-2, and 5 were positive for DENV-1. Five DENV-2-positive samples from early 2021 were sequenced, and the sequences clustered with the three other DENV-2 cosmopolitan genotype sequences already recorded on the continent. These results create a geographical link, suggesting the possible route of introduction of the DENV-2 cosmopolitan genotype into Brazil through the border with Peru, from which it may have dispersed to Midwest Brazil.

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