Serological Evidence of Exposure to Onyong-Nyong and Chikungunya Viruses in Febrile Patients of Rural Taita-Taveta County and Urban Kibera Informal Settlement in Nairobi, Kenya

Moses Muia Masika; Essi M Korhonen; Teemu Smura; Ruut Uusitalo; Joseph Ogola; Dufton Mwaengo; Anne J Jääskeläinen; Hussein Alburkat; Yong-Dae Gwon; Magnus Evander; Omu Anzala; Olli Vapalahti; Eili Huhtamo

doi:10.3390/v14061286

Serological Evidence of Exposure to Onyong-Nyong and Chikungunya Viruses in Febrile Patients of Rural Taita-Taveta County and Urban Kibera Informal Settlement in Nairobi, Kenya

Viruses. 2022 Jun 13;14(6):1286. doi: 10.3390/v14061286.

Authors

Moses Muia Masika^{1

2}, Essi M Korhonen^{3

4}, Teemu Smura^{3

5}, Ruut Uusitalo^{3

4

6}, Joseph Ogola^{1

2}, Dufton Mwaengo², Anne J Jääskeläinen^{3

5}, Hussein Alburkat³, Yong-Dae Gwon⁷, Magnus Evander⁷, Omu Anzala^{1

2}, Olli Vapalahti^{3

4

5}, Eili Huhtamo^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ KAVI Institute of Clinical Research, University of Nairobi, POB 19676, Nairobi 00202, Kenya.
² Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Nairobi, POB 19676, Nairobi 00202, Kenya.
³ Department of Virology, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.
⁴ Department of Veterinary Biosciences, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.
⁵ HUS Diagnostic Center, HUSLAB, Virology and Immunology, Helsinki University Hospital, 00029 Helsinki, Finland.
⁶ Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.
⁷ Department of Clinical Microbiology, Umeå University, 90185 SE Umeå, Sweden.

Abstract

Several alphaviruses, such as chikungunya (CHIKV) and Onyong-nyong (ONNV), are endemic in Kenya and often cause outbreaks in different parts of the country. We assessed the seroprevalence of alphaviruses in patients with acute febrile illness in two geographically distant areas in Kenya with no previous record of alphavirus outbreaks. Blood samples were collected from febrile patients in health facilities located in the rural Taita-Taveta County in 2016 and urban Kibera informal settlement in Nairobi in 2017 and tested for CHIKV IgG and IgM antibodies using an in-house immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and a commercial ELISA test, respectively. A subset of CHIKV IgG or IgM antibody-positive samples were further analyzed using plaque reduction neutralization tests (PRNT) for CHIKV, ONNV, and Sindbis virus. Out of 537 patients, 4 (0.7%) and 28 (5.2%) had alphavirus IgM and IgG antibodies, respectively, confirmed on PRNT. We show evidence of previous and current exposure to alphaviruses based on serological testing in areas with no recorded history of outbreaks.

Keywords: ELISA; Onyong-nyong; alphavirus; arbovirus; chikungunya; febrile illness; immunofluorescence; neutralization; seroprevalence.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Antibodies, Viral
Chikungunya Fever*
Chikungunya virus*
Fever
Humans
Immunoglobulin G
Immunoglobulin M
Kenya / epidemiology
Seroepidemiologic Studies

Substances

Antibodies, Viral
Immunoglobulin G
Immunoglobulin M

Grants and funding

This work was funded by, the Paulo Foundation to EH, Academy of Finland (318726) to OV, Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation to OV, Nessling Foundation to EMK, Centre for International Mobility (TM-16-1 0283) to MM and Swedish Research Council grant (2017-05607) to ME. MM is supported by a Career Development Fellowship Grant (number TMA2017CDF-1865) under the EDCTP2 program which is supported by the European Union. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.