KRISP mobile team tracking viral outbreaks in real-time in Brazil


KRISP, FioCruz, Brazilian Ministry of Health, the Pan American Organization and research centres from UK (Oxford, Birmingham and Edinburgh) established a network for real-time genomic surveillance.

Zibra2, Zika in Brazil Real Time analysis

Genomic surveillance of circulating pathogens are also fundamental for the prediction of future outbreaks and epidemics and also assist in the control of emerging infectious diseases. In the group of emerging and re-emergent infectious diseases, arboviruses such as Dengue (DENV), Yellow Fever (YFV), Chikungunya (CHIKV) and Zika (ZIKV) are considered major public health challenges. In addition to the scenario caused by DENV, which has been endemic throughout most of the country and has been responsible for epidemics for decades, the introduction of CHIKV and ZIKV in Brazil raises concerns about the challenges to public health.

Zibra2 travel timeline

The two weeks travel finished at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Brasilia, Brazil. The ZIbra2 team presented the results of the current 2019 outbreaks of Dengue, Yellow Fever, Chikungunya and Zika.

Zibra2 team at PAHO headquarters in Brazil

Publications from this KRISP collaboration:

- Circulation of chikungunya virus East/Central/South African lineage in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. PLoS One (2019), 14(6):e0217871.

- A computational method for the identification of Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya virus species and genotypes PLoS Negl Trop Dis (2019), 13(5):e0007231: doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007231

- Early Genomic Detection of Cosmopolitan Genotype of Dengue Virus Serotype 2, Angola, 2018 Emerg Infect Dis. (2019), 25(4):784-787.

- Genome Detective: An Automated System for Virus Identification from High-throughput sequencing data. Bioinformatics (2019), doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/bty695

- Genomic and epidemiological monitoring of yellow fever virus transmission potential. Science (2018), DOI: 10.1126/science.aat7115

- Zika virus complete genome from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Infection, Genetics and Evolution (2016), 41:142-145.

News date: 2019-07-01

Links:

https://www.zibra2project.org


KRISP has been created by the coordinated effort of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) and the South African Medical Research Countil (SAMRC).


Location: K-RITH Tower Building
Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN
719 Umbilo Road, Durban, South Africa.
Director: Prof. Tulio de Oliveira