International Journal of Infectious Diseases (Apr 2021)

Chikungunya virus ECSA lineage reintroduction in the northeasternmost region of Brazil

  • Joilson Xavier,
  • Vagner Fonseca,
  • Joao Felipe Bezerra,
  • Manoella do Monte Alves,
  • Maria Angélica Mares-Guia,
  • Ingra Morales Claro,
  • Ronaldo de Jesus,
  • Talita Adelino,
  • Emerson Araújo,
  • Karina Ribeiro Leite Jardim Cavalcante,
  • Stephane Tosta,
  • Themis Rocha de Souza,
  • Flavia Emanuelle Moreira da Cruz,
  • Allison de Araújo Fabri,
  • Elaine Cristina de Oliveira,
  • Noely Fabiana Oliveira de Moura,
  • Rodrigo Fabiano do Carmo Said,
  • Carlos Frederico Campelo de Albuquerque,
  • Vasco Azevedo,
  • Tulio de Oliveira,
  • Ana Maria Bispo de Filippis,
  • Rivaldo Venâncio da Cunha,
  • Kleber Giovanni Luz,
  • Marta Giovanetti,
  • Luiz Carlos Junior Alcantara

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 105
pp. 120 – 123

Abstract

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The Northeast region of Brazil registered the second-highest incidence proportion of Chikungunya fever in 2019. In that year, an outbreak consisting of patients presenting with febrile disease associated with joint pain was reported by the public primary health care service in the city of Natal, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, in March 2019. At first, the aetiological agent of the disease was undetermined. Since much is still unknown about chikungunya virus' (CHIKV) genomic diversity and evolutionary history in this northeasternmost state, we used a combination of portable whole-genome sequencing, molecular clock, and epidemiological analyses that revealed the reintroduction of the CHIKV East-Central-South-African (ECSA) lineage into Rio Grande do Norte. We estimated that the CHIKV ECSA lineage was first introduced into Rio Grande do Norte in early June 2014, while the 2019 outbreak clade diverged around April 2018, during a period of increased Chikungunya incidence in the Southeast region, which might have acted as a source of virus dispersion towards the Northeast region. Together, these results confirm that the ECSA lineage continues to spread across the country through interregional importation events, likely mediated by human mobility.

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