Arthropod-borne diseases among travellers arriving in Europe from Africa, 2015 to 2019

Gossner, Céline M; Hallmaier‐Wacker, Luisa K.; Briët, Olivier; Haussig, Joana M; Valk, Henriette de; Wijermans, Ariana; Bakonyi, Tamás; Madubuko, T.; Frank, Christina; Noël, Harold; Abdulaziz, Mohammed

doi:10.2807/1560-7917.es.2023.28.7.2200270

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…A surveillance system could be useful to obtain an effective control of RVFV in non-endemic areas. It could be carried out by testing travelers mainly from Africa or Middle East countries [ 27 ]. Evidence of RVFV-positive individuals returning from trips to African countries has also been reported by ECDC [ 2 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of Anti-Rift Valley Fever Virus Antibodies in Serum Samples of Patients with Suspected Arbovirus Infection

et al. 2023

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The definitive diagnosis of the Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) requires a form of testing that is available only in reference laboratories. It includes indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA), the serum neutralization assay (NA), and real-time PCR. Therefore, often, no attempts are made to detect it, even among travelers from endemic areas. In this study, the presence of anti-RVFV IgG and IgM was retrospectively screened in stored serum samples from people who were admitted with arbovirus symptoms at the National Institute for Infectious Diseases (INMI) L. Spallanzani, Rome, Italy. Overall, 80 residual serum samples were anonymized, and sub-aliquots were prepared and tested for anti-RVFV IgG and IgM. A serum neutralization assay was used as a confirmatory test. There was a positive result in eight out of 80 samples (10%) for anti-RVFV IgG, with titers ranging from 1:40 up to 1:1280. Three of eight (2.6%) samples were confirmed as seropositive through an in-house serum neutralization assay, with antibody titers ranging from 1:10 to 1:160. All samples resulted negative for anti-RVFV IgM and RVFV RNA when tested by IFA and real-time RT-PCR, respectively. Our data highlight that several RVFV infections can possibly escape routine virological diagnosis, which suggests RVFV testing should be set up in order to monitor virus prevalence.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of Anti-Rift Valley Fever Virus Antibodies in Serum Samples of Patients with Suspected Arbovirus Infection

et al. 2023

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“…All four cases were European residents. No associated deaths were reported [ 42 ]. RVFV was historically confined to the African continent until 2000, and it is enzootic in many African countries and Madagascar, see Figure 3 .…”

Section: Epidemiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Rift Valley Fever Virus: An Overview of the Current Status of Diagnostics

Lapa,

Pauciullo,

Ricci

et al. 2024

Biomedicines

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Rift Valley fever is a vector-borne zoonotic disease caused by the Rift Valley fever virus (Phlebovirus genus) listed among the eight pathogens included in the Bluepoint list by the WHO. The transmission is mainly vehicled by Aedes and Culex mosquito species. Symptoms of the disease are varied and non-specific, making clinical diagnosis often challenging, especially in the early stages. Due to the difficulty in distinguishing Rift Valley fever from other viral hemorrhagic fevers, as well as many other diseases that cause fever, an early diagnosis of the infection is important to limit its spread and to provide appropriate care to patients. To date, there is no validated point-of-care diagnostic tool. The virus can only be detected in the blood for a brief period, suggesting that molecular methods alone are not sufficient for case determination. For this, it is preferable to combine both molecular and serological tests. The wide distribution of competent vectors in non-endemic areas, together with global climate change, elicit the spread of RVFV to continents other than Africa, making surveillance activities vital to prevent or to limit the impact of human outbreaks and for a rapid identification of positive cases, making diagnosis a key factor for this achievement.

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“…Air travel plays a central role in the diffusion of most of these diseases, allowing their spread through imported cases at nonendemic locations [11][12][13] with vector presence, and it must be incorporated in decision-support systems to achieve operational preparedness and risk prediction [14][15][16]. Reliable descriptions and predictions of migration flows have been proven to be valuable tools for the design of more effective public health policies [17][18][19][20]. However, new developments are always needed as complex dynamics are expected to arise from the multi-step life cycle of VBDs [21][22][23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the Regional Distribution of International Travelers in Spain to Estimate Imported Cases of Dengue and Malaria: Statistical Inference and Validation Study

García-García,

Fernández-Martínez,

Bartumeus

et al. 2024

JMIR Public Health Surveill

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Background Understanding the patterns of disease importation through international travel is paramount for effective public health interventions and global disease surveillance. While global airline network data have been used to assist in outbreak prevention and effective preparedness, accurately estimating how these imported cases disseminate locally in receiving countries remains a challenge. Objective This study aimed to describe and understand the regional distribution of imported cases of dengue and malaria upon arrival in Spain via air travel. Methods We have proposed a method to describe the regional distribution of imported cases of dengue and malaria based on the computation of the “travelers’ index” from readily available socioeconomic data. We combined indicators representing the main drivers for international travel, including tourism, economy, and visits to friends and relatives, to measure the relative appeal of each region in the importing country for travelers. We validated the resulting estimates by comparing them with the reported cases of malaria and dengue in Spain from 2015 to 2019. We also assessed which motivation provided more accurate estimates for imported cases of both diseases. Results The estimates provided by the best fitted model showed high correlation with notified cases of malaria (0.94) and dengue (0.87), with economic motivation being the most relevant for imported cases of malaria and visits to friends and relatives being the most relevant for imported cases of dengue. Conclusions Factual descriptions of the local movement of international travelers may substantially enhance the design of cost-effective prevention policies and control strategies, and essentially contribute to decision-support systems. Our approach contributes in this direction by providing a reliable estimate of the number of imported cases of nonendemic diseases, which could be generalized to other applications. Realistic risk assessments will be obtained by combining this regional predictor with the observed local distribution of vectors.

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Arthropod-borne diseases among travellers arriving in Europe from Africa, 2015 to 2019

Cited by 17 publications

References 23 publications

Detection of Anti-Rift Valley Fever Virus Antibodies in Serum Samples of Patients with Suspected Arbovirus Infection

Detection of Anti-Rift Valley Fever Virus Antibodies in Serum Samples of Patients with Suspected Arbovirus Infection

Rift Valley Fever Virus: An Overview of the Current Status of Diagnostics

Modeling the Regional Distribution of International Travelers in Spain to Estimate Imported Cases of Dengue and Malaria: Statistical Inference and Validation Study

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