Tracing and tracking the emergence, epidemiology and dispersal of dengue virus to Africa during the 20th century

Dengue infections, caused by the four distinct dengue virus serotypes (DENV1 to DENV4), elicit a high burden of disease throughout the tropical and sub tropical regions of the world. Nevertheless, their precise epidemiological history in Africa, including when and where they originated and were distributed during the 20th century, remains unclear. Accordingly, we have conducted a time-scaled molecular epidemiological reconstruction using publicly available and newly sequenced dengue virus genomes of African origin representing all four serotypes to deduce the most likely temporal and spatial transmission routes of each DENV serotype from their ancestral regions to, within and from Africa.

登革热感染由四种不同的登革病毒血清型（DENV1至DENV4）引发，在全球热带与亚热带地区造成沉重的疾病负担。然而，该类病毒在非洲的精准流行病学史，包括20世纪的起源时间、起源地点及传播分布情况，至今仍不明确。为此，本研究借助公共数据库公开序列及新测序的、涵盖全部四种血清型的非洲来源登革病毒基因组，开展了时间标度的分子流行病学重建工作，以推演各DENV血清型从其祖先区域传入非洲、在非洲境内扩散以及从非洲向外传播的最可能时空传播路径。