Abstract
Dengue is a significant health concern in Sri Lanka, but diagnosis of the infecting dengue virus (DENV) serotype has hitherto been largely restricted to the Colombo district in the western province. Salinity tolerant Aedes vectors are present in the island’s northern Jaffna peninsula, which is undergoing rapid groundwater salinization. Virus serotypes were determined by RT-qPCR in 107 and 112 patients diagnosed by NS1 antigen positivity from the Jaffna district in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and related to clinical characteristics. DENV1 and DENV2 were the most common serotypes in both years. Infections with multiple serotypes were not detected. DENV1 was significantly more prevalent in 2019 than 2018, while DENV3 was significantly more prevalent in 2018 than 2019 among the Jaffna patients. Limited genomic sequencing identified DENV1 genotype-I and DENV3 genotype-I in Jaffna patients in 2018. Dengue was more prevalent in working age persons and males among the serotyped Jaffna patients. DENV1 and DENV2 were the predominant serotypes in 2019 in the Colombo district. However, DENV1 and DENV3 were significantly more prevalent in Colombo compared with Jaffna in 2019. The differences in the prevalence of DENV1 and DENV3 between the Jaffna and Colombo districts in 2019 have implications for dengue epidemiology and vaccination. Salinity-tolerant Aedes vector strains, widespread in the Jaffna peninsula, may have contributed to differences in serotype prevalence compared with the Colombo district in 2019. Significant associations were not identified between virus serotypes and clinical characteristics among Jaffna patients.
Highlights
Dengue fever (DF) is caused by infection with the dengue virus (DENV), which possesses a single, positive RNA strand genome and belongs to the family Flaviviridae [1,2,3,4].Four virus serotypes (DENV1-4) are widely recognized, with each serotype showing limited genomic variations that give rise to several genotypes within each serotype [1,2,3,4]
Identification of DENV serotypes has largely been confined to the Colombo district, where the nation’s largest city of Colombo is located (Figure 1), dengue is prevalent throughout the island of Sri Lanka [5,6,7,8]
Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus domestic and agricultural purposes [7,11,12], and sea water intrusion due to rising sea in the Jaffna peninsula are more tolerant of salinity than in mainland Sri Lanka [11,14,15]
Summary
Dengue fever (DF) is caused by infection with the dengue virus (DENV), which possesses a single, positive RNA strand genome and belongs to the family Flaviviridae [1,2,3,4]. Identification of DENV serotypes has largely been confined to the Colombo district, where the nation’s largest city of Colombo is located (Figure 1), dengue is prevalent throughout the island of Sri Lanka [5,6,7,8]. Dengue incidence is seasonal with peak transmission occurring immeistrative capital of the Jaffna district with an overall population density of 3048 perdiately after the onset of monsoon rains in the mainland of Sri Lanka [8] and the Jaffna sons/km. Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus domestic and agricultural purposes [7,11,12], and sea water intrusion due to rising sea in the Jaffna peninsula are more tolerant of salinity than in mainland Sri Lanka [11,14,15]. Findings inofJaffna wereDENV compared with DENV serotypes identified in patients from the Colombo district in 2019
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