Field and classroom initiatives for portable sequence-based monitoring of dengue virus in Brazil
Talita Adelino, Marta Giovanetti, Vagner Fonseca, Joilson Xavier, Álvaro Salgado, Valdinete Alves do Nascimento, Luiz Henrique Ferraz Demarchi, Marluce Aparecida Assunção Oliveira, Vinícius Lemes da Silva, Arabela Leal e Silva de Mello, Gabriel Muricy Cunha, Roselene Hans Santos, Elaine Cristina de Oliveira, Jorge Antônio Chamon Júnior, Felipe Campos de Melo Iani, Ana María Bispo de Filippis, André Luiz de Abreu, Ronaldo de Jesus, Carlos F. Campelo de Albuquerque, Jairo Méndez‐Rico, Rodrigo Fabiano do Carmo Said, Joscélio Aguiar Silva, Noely Fabiana Oliveira de Moura, Priscila Leal e Leite, Lívia Carla Vinhal Frutuoso, Simone Kashima, Alexander A. Martínez, Fernanda Khouri Barreto, Cynthia Vázquez, Rivaldo Venâncio da Cunha, Emerson Luiz Lima Araújo, Stephane Tosta, Allison Fabri, Flávia Löwen Levy Chalhoub, Poliana da Silva Lemos, Fernanda de Bruycker‐Nogueira, Gislene Garcia de Castro Lichs, Marina Castilhos Souza Umaki Zardin, Fátima María Cardozo Segovia, Crhistinne Cavalheiro Maymone Gonçalves, Zoraida del Carmen Fernandez Grillo, Svetoslav Nanev Slavov, Luiz Augusto Pereira, Ana Flávia Mendonça, Felicidade Mota Pereira, Jurandy Júnior Ferraz de Magalhães, Agenor de Castro Moreira dos Santos Júnior, Maricélia Maia de Lima, Rita Maria Ribeiro Nogueira, Aristóteles Goés‐Neto, Vasco Azevedo, Dario Brock Ramalho, Wanderson Kleber de Oliveira, Eduardo Marques Macário, Arnaldo Correia de Medeiros, Victor Pimentel, Latin American Genomic Surveillance Arboviral Network, Erenilde Marques de Cerqueira, Tiago Gräf, Walter Massa Ramalho, Wildo Navegantes, Renato Barbosa Reis, Clara Guerra-Duarte, Maira Alves Pereira, Paulo Eduardo de Souza da Silva, Raoni Almeida de Souza, Alex Pauvolid‐Corrêa, Anne Aline Pereira de Paiva, Hegger Fritsch, Maria Angélica Mares-Guia, María C. Vázquez Torres, Maurício Lima, Patrícia Carvalho de Sequeira, William de Almeida Marques, Jorlan Fernandes de Jesus, Felipe Gomes Naveca, Alessandra Lima da Silva, Anne Cybelle Pinto, Arun Kumar Jaiswal, Élisson Nogueira Lopes, Francielly Morais Rodrigues da Costa, Gabriel Quintanilha‐Peixoto, Gilson Carlos Soares, Paula Luize Camargos Fonseca, Renan P. Souza, Rodrigo Bentes Kato, Rodrigo Profeta Silveira Santos, Sandeep Tiwari, Wylerson Guimarães Nogueira, Beatriz Senra Álvares da Silva Santos, Bruna Lopes Bueno, Isadora Cristina de Siqueira, Lourdes Farre Vallve, Melina Mosquera Navarro Borba, Alix Sandra Mazzetto, Francisco de Assis Araújo Aguiar, Irenio da Silva Gomes, Jayra Juliana Paiva Alves Abrantes, Luiz Takao Watanabe, Marta Ferreira da Silva Rego
Abstract
Brazil experienced a large dengue virus (DENV) epidemic in 2019, highlighting a continuous struggle with effective control and public health preparedness. Using Oxford Nanopore sequencing, we led field and classroom initiatives for the monitoring of DENV in Brazil, generating 227 novel genome sequences of DENV1-2 from 85 municipalities (2015-2019). This equated to an over 50% increase in the number of DENV genomes from Brazil available in public databases. Using both phylogenetic and epidemiological models we retrospectively reconstructed the recent transmission history of DENV1-2. Phylogenetic analysis revealed complex patterns of transmission, with both lineage co-circulation and replacement. We identified two lineages within the DENV2 BR-4 clade, for which we estimated the effective reproduction number and pattern of seasonality. Overall, the surveillance outputs and training initiative described here serve as a proof-of-concept for the utility of real-time portable sequencing for research and local capacity building in the genomic surveillance of emerging viruses.