Abstract
BackgroundAn outbreak of dengue virus (DENV) occurred in Yunnan province. More than 2,000 individuals were infected from August to November 2013. In this study, we aimed to characterize the origin and prevalence of DENV in Dehong prefecture of Yunnan province using phylogenetic and evolutionary analyses of DENV strains collected from local patients and foreign travelers.MethodsA total of 41 DENV-positive serum samples were randomly collected from travelers who entered China at Ruili port or local patients with dengue fever in Dehong prefecture of Yunnan province, China. The envelope (E) gene of DENV was amplified and sequenced. The distributions and evolutionary characteristics of different genotypes were elucidated by phylogenetic and Bayesian analyses.ResultsPhylogenetically, all of the 41 DENV-positive samples could be classified into genotype I (43.9%) of serotype DENV-1 and the Asian I genotype (56.1%) of serotype DENV-2. DENV strains derived from local patients and foreign travelers were scattered equally within these two clusters. Furthermore, the DENV strains from the two populations exhibited high relatedness based on evolutionary characteristics.ConclusionsThese results suggested that imported and local DENV strains occurring during the dengue outbreak in 2013 were highly related. Additionally, these data may suggest that this dengue outbreak was caused by a newly imported infection from the neighboring country of Myanmar.
Highlights
An outbreak of dengue virus (DENV) occurred in Yunnan province
Twenty-three samples were randomly collected and determined to be DENV positive. These 23 patients with DENV infection were all local residents according to hospital records
18 DENV-positive serum samples were collected from foreign travelers exhibiting symptoms of dengue fever who entered at Ruili port
Summary
An outbreak of dengue virus (DENV) occurred in Yunnan province. We aimed to characterize the origin and prevalence of DENV in Dehong prefecture of Yunnan province using phylogenetic and evolutionary analyses of DENV strains collected from local patients and foreign travelers. Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease caused by the dengue virus (DENV). Due to frequent human migration and the vast distribution of mosquito vectors, the distribution of DENV has grown dramatically worldwide in recent years [1]. An estimated 50–100 million cases of dengue fever occur annually in tropical and subtropical areas [1,2]. Each serotype may be subclassified into several distinct phylogenetic clusters or genotypes [5]. A new serotype of DENV-5 was recently identified in
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