Dados do Trabalho

Título

MOLECULAR DIAGNOSIS OF CHIKUNGUNYA VIRUS FROM CASES REPORTED IN 2022 IN ALAGOAS, BRAZIL

Introdução

The chikungunya arbovirus causes a disease whose pathogenesis involves destructive reactions on connective and muscle tissue, causing symptoms like fever and arthralgia; it can be diagnosed by methods like Reverse Transcriptase followed by Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). That biomolecular test has a relative measure of viral concentration, the Cycle Threshold (CT), which is inversely proportional to the amount of viral load. In Brazil, the predominant strain of this virus is East/Central/South Africa (ECSA) genotype, being the only country in the Latin America with over a million cases, which explains the necessity of more studies that characterize it.

Objetivo (s)

Accomplish the molecular description of Chikungunya virus in the context of retrospective genomic surveillance from positive cases in 2022 in Alagoas, Brazil.

Material e Métodos

Patient samples with suspect arbovirus symptoms were sent to Public Health Central Laboratory of Alagoas (LACEN-AL) and were diagnosed through qRT-PCR, using the ZDC Molecular Kit – Bio-Manguinhos (ethic reference: 65701122.8.0000.5013). Positive samples with CT

Resultados e Conclusão

Out of the 150 samples, 59 were male (39.3%), while 91 were female (60.7%). The majority age range was from 3 to 17 years old, encompassing children and teenagers. Forty-seven patients (31.33%) have the CT value between 20 and 23.3. We obtained 15 partial genomes of Chikungunya virus, with average size of 10704 pb, all of that belonging to ECSA genotype. Chikungunya is a significant arbovirus in Alagoas, where a recent outbreak of this disease happened in 2022. Molecular assays were performed for viral RNA diagnosis, besides a epidemiological analysis, identifying 15 viral genomes, which were characterized.

Palavras Chave

Chikungunya virus; Epidemiology; Alagoas