RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Genomic epidemiology supports multiple introductions and cryptic transmission of Zika virus in Colombia
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 454777
DO 10.1101/454777
A1 Allison Black
A1 Louise H. Moncla
A1 Katherine Laiton-Donato
A1 Barney Potter
A1 Lissethe Pardo
A1 Angelica Rico
A1 Catalina Tovar
A1 Diana P. Rojas
A1 Ira M. Longini
A1 M. Elizabeth Halloran
A1 Dioselina Peláez-Carvajal
A1 Juan D. Ramírez
A1 Marcela Mercado-Reyes
A1 Trevor Bedford
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/11/21/454777.abstract
AB Colombia was the second most affected country during the American Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic, with over 109,000 reported cases. Despite the scale of the outbreak, limited genomic sequence data were available from Colombia. We sequenced ZIKV genomes from Colombian clinical diagnostic samples and infected Aedes aegypti samples across the temporal and geographic breadth of the epidemic. Phylogeographic analysis of these genomes, along with other publicly-available ZIKV genomes from the Americas, indicates at least two separate introductions of ZIKV to Colombia, one of which was previously unrecognized. We estimate the timing of each introduction to Colombia, finding that ZIKV was introduced and circulated cryptically for 4 to 6 months prior to ZIKV confirmation in September 2015. These findings underscore the utility of genomic epidemiological studies for understanding epidemiological dynamics, especially when many infections are asymptomatic.Author summary Understanding Zika virus epidemiology using standard surveillance methods has been challenging because many cases are asymptomatic and therefore are not observed. In such cases, we can use evolutionary analysis of pathogen genomes to explore patterns of disease transmission, including estimating when a disease arrived in a country and how it spread after it was introduced. In this paper, the authors sequence and analyze Zika viruses sampled from Colombia, the second most affected country after Brazil. The authors estimated that Zika arrived in Colombia around 4 to 6 months before laboratory confirmation of Zika presence. Zika circulated in Colombia, and also spread from Colombia into bordering countries, including Peru, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. These findings help epidemiologists define when the Colombian population was at risk for Zika infection, which is important for monitoring the frequency of Zika-related outcomes, such as microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome. Additionally, understanding spatial patterns of spread is an important step in understanding how Zika spread throughout the Americas.