Mosquito culprit found for Brazil chikungunya epidemic

巴西科学家已经确定了第一个Aedes aegyptimosquito infected with the chikungunya virus in the country, a discovery that confirms the species is a carrier for thedisease并加剧了人们对2015 - 2016年东北地区流行病的涉及的怀疑。

被感染的蚊子是在Aracaju市收集的一批混合物种中发现的，这是由基于Sao Paulo的Zika网络进行的研究项目的一部分，该项目得到了巴西研究基金会FAPESP的支持。

The batch contained 50A.埃及mosquitoes，194Culex Quinquefasciatus和two specimens each ofA.肩cap骨和A. Taeniorhynchusmosquitoes.

在对病毒基因组进行了测序之后，科学家证实了女性A.埃及蚊子是基孔肯雅亚东南部非洲（ECSA）基因型的载体。

“Knowing for certain which vector is involved in an epidemic is something that directly impacts on control measures, because protocols are specific to each mosquito species.”

Margareth Capurro

该研究的首席作者安德烈·路易斯·科斯塔·塞尔瓦（AndréLuisCosta-da-Silva）发表在《杂志》上PLO被忽视的热带疾病, explained that although a single specimen may seem insignificant, finding an infected female among 50 mosquitoes suggests “a high viral circulation and an indication of an on-going epidemic”.

Prior to this finding, there was only one report of anA.埃及mosquitoinfected by the Asian genotype of the chikungunya virus in Latin America and the Caribbean, through research done in Mexico. However, viruses from both the Asian and African cell lines had already infected patients in Brazil according to Costa-da-Silva, a post-doctoral student of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICB) at Sao Paulo University.

更多的than 265,000 probable human cases of chikungunya disease had been reported in Brazil up to December 2016, according to the Ministry of Health, and 40,000 cases were suspected in 2015. But no mosquito infected with the virus had been detected until now.

研究小组于2016年2月在巴西东北部的Aracaju六个地区收集了蚊子，成千上万的人报告了高烧和身体疼痛 - 节肢动物传播疾病的症状特征。

共有248家蚊子被捕获，冷冻，然后送往圣保罗的ICB，测试与登革热，Zika或Chikungunya感染。

除了单身女性以外，没有其他蚊子A.埃及发现被任何病毒感染。

根据研究人员的说法，仅找到一种被感染的蚊子的原因之一是，在收集蚊子时，流行病已经达到顶峰。

“Knowing for certain which vector is involved in an epidemic is something that directly impacts on control measures, because protocols are specific to each mosquito species,” says Margareth Capurro, a professor at ICB.

Capurro also expressed disappointment that almost all public funding for Zika-related research is linked to development of vaccines and diagnostic methods. “There is no investment in pilot programmes for mosquito control,” she pointed out.

The next step for the research team will be to collect mosquitoes and conduct a similar analysis in Southeastern Brazil, this time focusing on Zika detection.

取自newsletter by FAPESP, a SciDev.Net donor, edited by SciDev.Net’s Latin America and the Caribbean desk.

This piece was originally published by SciDev.Net’s Latin America and Caribbean desk.