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Surveillance for Common Arboviruses in Whole Blood of Malaria-Free Ill Returned Canadian Travelers to the Americas

  • Tropical, Travel and Emerging Infections (LH Chen and A Boggild, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

The Zika virus outbreak in the Americas prompted enhanced global surveillance due to the recognition of adverse neurological outcomes, including Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a novel but devastating congenital syndrome. Symptomatic Zika virus infection is clinically indistinguishable from other arboviral infections of the Americas such as chikungunya, dengue, and the more recently emerging Mayaro virus.

Recent Findings

We conducted laboratory surveillance for such arboviruses in ill returned travelers to the Americas between November 2015 and May 2016 by examining whole blood, malaria-negative specimens with noted travel history to the Americas by real-time and end-point PCR for the following targets: chikungunya (CHIKV), flaviviruses (Pan-Flavi), dengue virus types 1–4 (DEN1, DEN2, DEN3, DEN4), and Zika virus (ZIKV). End-point PCR was performed to detect Mayaro virus (MAYV).

1294 malaria-negative specimens were evaluated for compatible travel history. Of 224 enrolled specimens, 124 (55%) were from returned travelers to the Caribbean, while 66 (29.5%) were from Central America, and 34 (15.2%) from South America. Arboviral pathogens detected included: dengue (n = 3, 1.3%), Zika virus (n = 2, 0.9%), and unspecified flavivirus (n = 2, 0.9%). No cases of chikungunya or Mayaro were detected in the cohort.

Summary

Common arboviruses circulating in the Americas were detected in over 3% of whole-blood malaria-free specimens from ill returned travelers, supporting the notion that during this time period, Zika virus was as commonly imported as dengue from this geographic region. Surveillance for other flaviviruses and alphaviruses including Mayaro virus is warranted to detect sentinel events, and inform priorities for diagnostic testing capacity.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Molecular Diagnostics Department of the Public Health Ontario Laboratory for providing positive control material. We thank Arghavan Omidi and Camille Renee for internal peer-review of this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by Public Health Ontario via the Project Initiation Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Ruwandi Kariyawasam

  2. Alberta Precision Laboratories-Public Health, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Ruwandi Kariyawasam

  3. Public Health Ontario Laboratory Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Alireza Eshaghi, Stephen Perusini, Rachel Lau, Samir N. Patel & Jonathan B. Gubbay

  4. Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Samir N. Patel & Jonathan B. Gubbay

  5. Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Andrea K. Boggild

  6. Tropical Disease Unit, Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network, 200 Elizabeth Street, 13-EN218, Toronto, ON, M5G 2C4, Canada

    Andrea K. Boggild

  7. Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Andrea K. Boggild

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  1. Ruwandi Kariyawasam
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  2. Alireza Eshaghi
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  4. Rachel Lau
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  7. Andrea K. Boggild
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Contributions

AKB conceived the study and contributed to study design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation. RK and AKB were primarily responsible for writing the manuscript. AE, SP, and RK contributed to data collection, analysis and interpretation. RL, SN, and JBG contributed to critical appraisal of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea K. Boggild.

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Kariyawasam, R., Eshaghi, A., Perusini, S. et al. Surveillance for Common Arboviruses in Whole Blood of Malaria-Free Ill Returned Canadian Travelers to the Americas. Curr Infect Dis Rep 23, 19 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11908-021-00762-1

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