R. Lachmann, Cristina Domingo, Christina Frank, Andreas Ochs, Andreas Karl Pauly, Marijke Weber‐Schehl, Michael Schmidt, Torsten Tonn, Thomas H Müller, L. Barzon, A. Sinigaglia, Sarah Esquevin, K. Preußel, Ruth Offergeld
{"title":"West Nile Virus Emergence in Germany 2019: Looking for Hidden Human West Nile Virus Infections.","authors":"R. Lachmann, Cristina Domingo, Christina Frank, Andreas Ochs, Andreas Karl Pauly, Marijke Weber‐Schehl, Michael Schmidt, Torsten Tonn, Thomas H Müller, L. Barzon, A. Sinigaglia, Sarah Esquevin, K. Preußel, Ruth Offergeld","doi":"10.1089/vbz.2023.0103","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Background: Autochthonous human West Nile virus (WNV) infections were notified in the infectious disease surveillance system in Germany in 2018 for the first time and every year since then. Since clinically apparent infections are infrequent, we conducted two studies to investigate subclinical infections of this emerging disease in Germany in 2019 to detect infections not visible to surveillance based on symptomatic infections: limited-scope blood donor testing and a serosurvey among employees at two Berlin zoos with a history of demonstrated WNV infections in animals. Methods: For the zoo study, employees of the two zoos in Berlin were invited to participate in the study in late 2019. Blood samples were drawn and tested for the presence of antibodies (immunoglobulin M [IgM] and immunoglobulin G [IgG]) against WNV, and two other flaviviruses present in Germany: Usutu virus and Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). For the study in blood donors, four blood establishments with collection sites in regions with documented WNV-infected animals in 2018 and 2019 participated in the study. All donations in these regions were tested for WNV genome from July to November 2019. Results: In the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, none of the 70 tested zoo employees were WNV IgM-positive, 8 were WNV IgG-positive, additional 2 participants had equivocal results. All 10 were negative in the virus neutralization test (VNT) for WNV, but positive in the VNT for TBEV. None of the 4273 samples from blood donors tested in areas with WNV-infected animals was positive for WNV-RNA. Conclusion: Our results indicate that WNV circulation in Germany, though clearly documented in animals in 2019, apparently affected very few humans. Still areas with WNV-positive animals remain risk areas for human infection as well.","PeriodicalId":23683,"journal":{"name":"Vector borne and zoonotic diseases","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Vector borne and zoonotic diseases","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1089/vbz.2023.0103","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"INFECTIOUS DISEASES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Autochthonous human West Nile virus (WNV) infections were notified in the infectious disease surveillance system in Germany in 2018 for the first time and every year since then. Since clinically apparent infections are infrequent, we conducted two studies to investigate subclinical infections of this emerging disease in Germany in 2019 to detect infections not visible to surveillance based on symptomatic infections: limited-scope blood donor testing and a serosurvey among employees at two Berlin zoos with a history of demonstrated WNV infections in animals. Methods: For the zoo study, employees of the two zoos in Berlin were invited to participate in the study in late 2019. Blood samples were drawn and tested for the presence of antibodies (immunoglobulin M [IgM] and immunoglobulin G [IgG]) against WNV, and two other flaviviruses present in Germany: Usutu virus and Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). For the study in blood donors, four blood establishments with collection sites in regions with documented WNV-infected animals in 2018 and 2019 participated in the study. All donations in these regions were tested for WNV genome from July to November 2019. Results: In the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, none of the 70 tested zoo employees were WNV IgM-positive, 8 were WNV IgG-positive, additional 2 participants had equivocal results. All 10 were negative in the virus neutralization test (VNT) for WNV, but positive in the VNT for TBEV. None of the 4273 samples from blood donors tested in areas with WNV-infected animals was positive for WNV-RNA. Conclusion: Our results indicate that WNV circulation in Germany, though clearly documented in animals in 2019, apparently affected very few humans. Still areas with WNV-positive animals remain risk areas for human infection as well.
期刊介绍:
Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases is an authoritative, peer-reviewed journal providing basic and applied research on diseases transmitted to humans by invertebrate vectors or non-human vertebrates. The Journal examines geographic, seasonal, and other risk factors that influence the transmission, diagnosis, management, and prevention of this group of infectious diseases, and identifies global trends that have the potential to result in major epidemics.
Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases coverage includes:
-Ecology
-Entomology
-Epidemiology
-Infectious diseases
-Microbiology
-Parasitology
-Pathology
-Public health
-Tropical medicine
-Wildlife biology
-Bacterial, rickettsial, viral, and parasitic zoonoses