TY - JOUR
T1 - Rubella epidemiology in the Central African Republic, 2015-2016 and molecular characterization of virus strains from 2008-2016
AU - PAGONENDJI, Marilou S.
AU - GOUANDJIKA-VASILACHE, Ionela
AU - CHARPENTIER, Emilie
AU - SAUSY, Aurélie
AU - LE FAOU, Alain
AU - DUVAL, Raphaël E.
AU - HÜBSCHEN, Judith M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge the logistical and administrative support of Institut Pasteur de Bangui, the Ministries of Health and Population of the Central African Republic and of WHO-Central Africa. We thank the WHO country office of the Central African Republic for providing the maps used in this manuscript, Prof. Claude P. Muller for his help with the acquisition of funding and Regina Sinner from the Luxembourg Institute of Health for submitting the sequences to GenBank.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the Luxembourg Institute of Health (“Microbiology for Development” grant). The funding agencies had no role in study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the report or in the decision to submit the article for publication.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
PY - 2021/10
Y1 - 2021/10
N2 - Objectives: Rubella cases in the Central African Republic (CAF) are currently identified during measles surveillance. This study aimed to investigate rubella epidemiology between 2015 and 2016 and to provide baseline genotype data for monitoring future rubella control efforts. Methods: 831 measles IgM negative or equivocal sera from 2015/2016 were tested for rubella IgM antibodies and 350 rubella IgM positive sera collected between 2008 and 2016 were selected for PCR and sequencing. Results: 411 of the 831 sera (49.5%) were rubella IgM positive and most cases (n=391, 95.1%) occurred between January and April. Most patients were between 5 and 9 years old (50.2%) and more than half of the rubella cases (56.7%) originated from the capital Bangui. Genotype information was obtained for 37 of the 350 selected rubella IgM-positive specimens, with the majority of the patients originating from Bangui (n=24, 64.9%) and sequences covering all years except 2009. Phylogenetic analysis identified genotypes 1E (n=12), 1G (n=5) and 2B (n=20), with 2B being detected from 2014 onwards. Conclusions: Our study confirmed the important role of rubella as a rash and fever disease in CAF and provided comprehensive data on rubella epidemiology and the first information on rubella genotypes in the country.
AB - Objectives: Rubella cases in the Central African Republic (CAF) are currently identified during measles surveillance. This study aimed to investigate rubella epidemiology between 2015 and 2016 and to provide baseline genotype data for monitoring future rubella control efforts. Methods: 831 measles IgM negative or equivocal sera from 2015/2016 were tested for rubella IgM antibodies and 350 rubella IgM positive sera collected between 2008 and 2016 were selected for PCR and sequencing. Results: 411 of the 831 sera (49.5%) were rubella IgM positive and most cases (n=391, 95.1%) occurred between January and April. Most patients were between 5 and 9 years old (50.2%) and more than half of the rubella cases (56.7%) originated from the capital Bangui. Genotype information was obtained for 37 of the 350 selected rubella IgM-positive specimens, with the majority of the patients originating from Bangui (n=24, 64.9%) and sequences covering all years except 2009. Phylogenetic analysis identified genotypes 1E (n=12), 1G (n=5) and 2B (n=20), with 2B being detected from 2014 onwards. Conclusions: Our study confirmed the important role of rubella as a rash and fever disease in CAF and provided comprehensive data on rubella epidemiology and the first information on rubella genotypes in the country.
KW - Central African Republic
KW - epidemiology
KW - genotype
KW - rash
KW - rubella virus
KW - surveillance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115197517&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34450282
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijid.2021.08.050
DO - 10.1016/j.ijid.2021.08.050
M3 - Article
C2 - 34450282
AN - SCOPUS:85115197517
SN - 1201-9712
VL - 111
SP - 303
EP - 309
JO - International Journal of Infectious Diseases
JF - International Journal of Infectious Diseases
ER -