Abstract
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an alphavirus transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, which causes Chikungunya fever. Three CHIKV genotypes have been identified: West African, East-Central-South African and Asian. In 2014, CHIKV was detected for the first time in Mexico, accumulating 13,569 confirmed cases in the following three years. Studies on the molecular diversification of CHIKV in Mexico focused on limited geographic regions or investigated only one structural gene of the virus. To describe the dynamics of this outbreak, we analyzed 309 serum samples from CHIKV acute clinical cases from 15 Mexican states. Partial NSP3, E1, and E2 genes were sequenced, mutations were identified, and their genetic variability was estimated. The evolutionary relationship with CHIKV sequences sampled globally were analyzed. Our sequences grouped with the Asian genotype within the Caribbean lineage, suggesting that the Asian was the only circulating genotype during the outbreak. Three non-synonymous mutations (E2 S248F and NSP3 A437T and L451F) were present in our sequences, which were also identified in sequences of the Caribbean lineage and in one Philippine sequence. Based on the phylogeographic analysis, the viral spread was reconstructed, suggesting that after the introduction through the Mexican southern border (Chiapas), CHIKV dispersed to neighboring states before reaching the center and north of the country through the Pacific Ocean states and Quintana Roo. This is the first viral phylogeographic reconstruction in Mexico characterizing the CHIKV outbreak across the country.
Highlights
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an alphavirus transmitted by the bite of infected female Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes
Eleven were isolated from patients living in the states of Baja California Sur, 2 from Baja California, 5 from Chiapas, 9 from Colima, 3 from Mexico City, 1 from Guerrero, 1 from Mexico State, 2 from Michoacan, 2 from Nuevo Leon, 6 from Oaxaca, 3 from Quintana Roo, 3 from Sinaloa, 3 from Tabasco, 6 from Veracruz, and two from Yucatan (Figure S5)
This study suggests the possibility that the strain called Cosmopolitan Asian CHIKV (CACV) responsible for outbreaks in the Caribbean had its origin in the Philippines
Summary
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an alphavirus transmitted by the bite of infected female Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. It causes chikungunya fever (CHIKF), an acute febrile disease with four clinical forms: acute, atypical acute, severe acute and chronic [1]. The distinctive clinical features are usually fever and polyarthralgia, often accompanied by polyarthritis. Myalgia, headache, rash, fatigue, diarrhea and oedema can occur [2]. Atypical acute CHIKF includes neurological, cardiovascular, skin, renal, and respiratory manifestations [3–5]. Cardiac or multiple organ failure are prevalent in severe acute cases [6]. CHIKV contains a 12 kb positive-sense, single-stranded
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