Collaborators: Souleymane Mboup (Senegal), Abdou Padane (Senegal), Tulio de Oliveira (South Africa), Houriiyah Tegally (South Africa), Monika Moir (South Africa), Jenicca Poongavanan (South Africa), Graeme Dor (South Africa), etc
Summary: Unlike other parts of Africa which seem to suffer from Dengue outbreaks following regular re-introductions from Asia, it is clear that circulation of Dengue in West Africa may rather be maintained endemically. During the first half of 2023, we engaged with public health offices in various countries who stressed the need for serological and genomic characterization of non-malaria febrile cases in West Africa. Genomic information on the circulation of Dengue had so far been limited, often emanating from testing of returning travelers to Europe. CLIMADE therefore organized and mobilised reagents for the sequencing of 300 Dengue positive cases sampled from 2017 to 2022. Preliminary results indicate the co-circulation of 3 Dengue serotypes in West Africa (DENV1,2,3), with viral movement between densely populated urban areas of the region over several years. Preliminary evidence suggests that large outbreaks in 2017 and 2019 were caused by explosive growth of the DENV2 serotype after cryptic low level circulation for decades, while other serotypes remained stable. Further sampling, sequencing and analysis are ongoing to confirm these conclusions.
Activity Type: Research Project
CLIMADE Africa