ABSTRACT
During 2019-2020, a chikungunya outbreak occurred in Djibouti City, Djibouti, while dengue virus and malaria parasites were cocirculating. We used blotting paper to detect arbovirus emergence and confirm that it is a robust method for detecting and monitoring arbovirus outbreaks remotely.
Subject(s)
Arboviruses , Chikungunya Fever , Chikungunya virus , Dengue Virus , Dengue , Zika Virus Infection , Humans , Chikungunya Fever/epidemiology , Chikungunya virus/genetics , Djibouti/epidemiology , Disease Outbreaks , Dengue/epidemiology , Zika Virus Infection/epidemiologyABSTRACT
The chikungunya virus (CHIKV) originated from Africa and has spread worldwide. Since 2017, multiple chikungunya outbreaks have been reported in the Horn of Africa, without molecular characterization. In November 2019, an autochthonous acute chikungunya infection was diagnosed in a French patient living in Djibouti, marking the re-emergence of the virus in the country. The strain was isolated and fully sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the Djiboutian strain belongs to the Indian lineage of the Eastern/Central/South African (ECSA) genotype. Two mutations highly increasing the virus's fitness in Aedes aegypti, the sole vector present in Djibouti city, were identified.
