Abstract
Dengue fever is a major worldwide public health problem that, as estimated by the WHO, causes epidemics in over 100 countries, resulting in hundreds of millions of dengue virus (DENV) infections every year. In China, dengue fever mainly occurs in coastal areas. Recurring dengue outbreaks were reported by Guangdong Province almost every year since the first epidemic in 1978. DENV infections persisted in Guangzhou in consecutive years since 2000, with the dengue epidemic reaching a historical peak in 2014. Because Guangzhou is one of the largest cities for opening up in China, understanding the epidemiological characteristics of dengue fever in the city can hopefully provide a significant basis for developing effective dengue prevention strategies. In this study, a total of 34 DENV strains, including 29 DENV-1 strains and 5 DENV-2 strains, were isolated from a blood samples drawn from patients who were diagnosed with dengue fever by hospitals in Guangzhou during 2018. To explore the epidemiological characteristics of dengue fever, the envelope (E) gene obtained from the isolates was amplified for phylogenetic analysis. The results from the phylogenetic analysis showed that DENV in Guangzhou was mainly imported from Southeast Asian countries. Additionally, propagation paths based on phylogeographical analysis suggested potential local dengue transmission in Guangzhou.
Highlights
Dengue fever, known as "break-bone fever", is an acute mosquito-borne viral disease caused by dengue virus (DENV) [1]
DENV strains were isolated from blood samples drawn from DENV-infected patients who were diagnosed with dengue fever by hospitals in Guangzhou during 2018
Blood samples were drawn from DENV-infected patients who were diagnosed with dengue fever by hospitals in Guangzhou during 2018, and an analysis was performed on the DENV strains isolated from these blood samples
Summary
Known as "break-bone fever", is an acute mosquito-borne viral disease caused by dengue virus (DENV) [1]. In Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong Province, dengue incidence, regardless of the number of DENV infections, has been reported every year since 2000 [14]. There were over 46000 dengue fever cases notified nationwide throughout the year, including up to 45230 cases and 76 imported cases reported by Guangdong Province, which exceeds the cumulative number of infections between 1990 and 2013 [14, 16]. Dengue epidemics refer to continued widespread outbreaks of dengue fever in areas where DENV affects a large population and is transmitted between people by the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. As a result of rapid economic growth, thriving tourism, and the greenhouse effect, there were many patients infected with dengue fever in Guangdong Province, and a serious outbreak occurred. We described the epidemiological characteristics of isolated DENV based on phylogenetic reconstruction and analysis using a dataset comprised of DENV sequences downloaded from the GenBank database and those obtained from genome sequencing
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