Prevalence of arboviruses in sickle cell disease patients from two major cities in northeast region of Brazil

José Pereira Moura Neto; Cinthia Cristina Matheus Xerez Albuquerque; Setondji Cocou Modeste Alexandre Yahouedehou; Marcos Vinicius Lima Francisco; Nelson Abrahim Fraiji; Isadora Cristina de Siqueira; Marilda Souza Gonçalves

doi:10.1016/j.bjid.2024.103741

Prevalence of arboviruses in sickle cell disease patients from two major cities in northeast region of Brazil

Braz J Infect Dis. 2024 Apr 23;28(2):103741. doi: 10.1016/j.bjid.2024.103741. Online ahead of print.

Authors

José Pereira Moura Neto¹, Cinthia Cristina Matheus Xerez Albuquerque², Setondji Cocou Modeste Alexandre Yahouedehou³, Marcos Vinicius Lima Francisco³, Nelson Abrahim Fraiji², Isadora Cristina de Siqueira³, Marilda Souza Gonçalves³

Affiliations

¹ Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Instituto Gonçalo Moniz, Salvador, BA, Brazil; Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Laboratório de Análise Especializada em Biologia Molecular (LAEBM), Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, AM, Brazil; Fundação Hospitalar de Hematologia e Hemoterapia do Amazonas (HEMOAM), Universidade do Estado do Amazonas (UEA), Manaus, AM, Brazil. Electronic address: jpmn@ufam.edu.br.
² Fundação Hospitalar de Hematologia e Hemoterapia do Amazonas (HEMOAM), Universidade do Estado do Amazonas (UEA), Manaus, AM, Brazil.
³ Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Instituto Gonçalo Moniz, Salvador, BA, Brazil.

Abstract

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a hereditary disease characterized by extravascular and intravascular hemolysis and clinical variability, from mild pain to potentially life-threatening. Arboviruses include mainly Zika (ZIKV), Chikungunya (CHKV), and Dengue (DENV) virus, and are considered a public and social health problem. The present cross-sectional observational study aimed to investigate the prevalence of arbovirus infection in SCD patients from two Brazilian cities, Salvador and Manaus located in Bahia and Amazonas states respectively. A total of 409 individuals with SCD were included in the study, and 307 (75.06 %) patients tested positive for DENV-IgG, 161 (39.36 %) for ZIKV-IgG, and 60 (14.67 %) for CHIKV-IgG. Only one individual was positive for DENV-NS1 and another for DENV-IgM, both from Salvador. No individuals had positive serology for ZIKV-IgM or CHIKV-IgM. Arbovirus positivity by IgG testing revealed that the SCD group presented high frequencies in both cities. Interestingly, these differences were only statistically significant for ZIKV-IgG (p = 0.023) and CHIKV-IgG (p = 0.005) among SCD patients from Manaus. The reshaping of arbovirus from its natural habitat by humans due to disorderly urban expansion and the ease of international Mobility has been responsible for facilitating the spread of vector-borne infectious diseases in humans. We found the need for further studies on arboviruses in this population to elucidate the real association and impact, especially in acute infection. We hope that this study will contribute to improvements in the personalized clinical follow-up of SCD patients, identifying the influence of arbovirus infection in severe disease manifestations.

Keywords: Arbovirus; CHIKV; DENV; Manaus; Salvador; Sickle cell disease; ZIKV.