Hand, foot, and mouth disease outbreak by Coxsackievirus A6 during COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, São Paulo, Brazil.

INTRODUCTION: Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is an acute febrile illness characterized by fever; sore throat; and vesicular eruptions on the hands, feet, and oral mucosa. Outbreaks of HFMD in children aged <5 years have been reported worldwide and the major causative agents are Coxsackievirus (CV)A16, enterovirus (EV)-A71 and recently CVA6. AIM AND METHODS: The aim of this study was to investigated a large outbreak of Hand, foot, and mouth disease during COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 from clinical samples of 315 suspected cases, in São Paulo State, Brazil. Diagnostic evaluation was performed by RT-qPCR, culture cell isolation and serological neutralization assay. EV-positive were genotyped by partial VP1 genome sequencing. RESULTS: One hundred and forty-nine cases analyzed were positive for enterovirus (47.3%; n = 149/315) by neutralizing test (n = 10 patients) and RT-qPCR (n = 139 patients), and identified as CVA6 sub-lineage D3 by analysis of VP1 partial sequences. CONCLUSIONS: This finding indicated the reemergence of CVA6 in HFMD, soon after the gradual easing of non-pharmaceutical interventions during-pandemic COVID-19 and the relevance of continued surveillance of circulating enterovirus types in the post-COVID pandemic era.

A new species and new records of minuta-group Gnamptogenys from Brazil (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

ABSTRACT We report new records of Gnamptogenys caelata Kempf (1967) and Gnamptogenys minuta (Emery, 1896) from Brazil. We also describe Gnamptogenys piei n. sp. from Southeast Brazil. This distinctive new species is known only from a single worker found in leaf litter from montane forests of the Mantiqueira mountains in Itatiaia National Park, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. The specimen was collected at 1991 m above sea level, an infrequent altitude for minuta-group ants, usually more common at lower altitudes. The new species is imaged, compared with other minuta-group species, and an updated identification key for all known species of the minuta-group is included.