Detection of West Nile virus lineage 1 sequences in blood donors, Punjab Province, Pakistan

Ali Zohaib; Saifullah Khan Niazi; Muhammad Saqib; Muhammad Sohail Sajid; Iahtasham Khan; Awais-Ur-Rahman Sial; Muhammad Ammar Athar; Zeeshan Taj; Ghazanfar Abbas; Muhammad Ali Rathore; Eijaz Ghani; Muhammad Ahsan Naeem; Muhammad Imran; Naveed Iqbal; Sajjad-Ur Rehman; Cecilia Waruhiu; Zheng-Li Shi

doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2019.01.020

Detection of West Nile virus lineage 1 sequences in blood donors, Punjab Province, Pakistan

Int J Infect Dis. 2019 Apr:81:137-139. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2019.01.020. Epub 2019 Jan 18.

Authors

Ali Zohaib¹, Saifullah Khan Niazi², Muhammad Saqib³, Muhammad Sohail Sajid⁴, Iahtasham Khan⁵, Awais-Ur-Rahman Sial⁶, Muhammad Ammar Athar⁷, Zeeshan Taj⁸, Ghazanfar Abbas⁴, Muhammad Ali Rathore⁹, Eijaz Ghani², Muhammad Ahsan Naeem¹⁰, Muhammad Imran⁴, Naveed Iqbal⁴, Sajjad-Ur Rehman⁴, Cecilia Waruhiu¹, Zheng-Li Shi¹¹

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
² Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
³ Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Electronic address: drsaqib_vet@hotmail.com.
⁴ Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
⁵ Section of Epidemiology and Public Health, Dept. Clinical Sciences, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore Sub-campus, Jhang, Pakistan.
⁶ Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, PMAS Aird Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
⁷ Laboratory of Cancer Biomarkers and Liquid Biopsy, College of Pharmacy, Henan University, Henan, China.
⁸ Department of Microbiology, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.
⁹ Armed Forces Institute of Transfusion (AFIT), Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.
¹¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.

PMID: 30664985
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2019.01.020

Abstract

Objectives: This study was performed to determine the presence of West Nile virus (WNV) in mosquito specimens and human blood donors in Pakistan.

Methods: A total of 4150 mosquito specimens were collected using CO₂-baited traps from five selected districts of Punjab Province, Pakistan. The mosquitoes were taxonomically identified using standard morphological keys, resulting in 166 pools. In addition, 1070 serum samples were collected from human blood donors. RNA was extracted from mosquito and human samples and screened for WNV using a reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR).

Results: None of the mosquito pools tested positive for WNV, whereas three samples from asymptomatic humans tested positive. To determine the WNV strains, partial sequences were compared against a global representation of 23 WNV sequences. The study strains were determined to come from WNV lineage 1.

Conclusions: This study is novel in reporting the circulation of lineage 1 WNV in Pakistan. Given its ability to transmit from human to human via blood transfusion, this highlights the urgent need for nationwide surveillance to assess the distribution and impact of WNV in Pakistan. Determining the source of human infection will require more extensive mosquito sampling.

Keywords: Human; Mosquitoes; Pakistan; West Nile virus.

MeSH terms

Adult
Animals
Blood Donors*
Culicidae / virology*
Female
Humans
Male
Pakistan
West Nile virus / classification
West Nile virus / genetics
West Nile virus / isolation & purification*