Development of a diagnostic platform and monitoring system for arboviruses in the city of Santo André, Brazil

• Grant number: 16/14457-0
• Support type: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: February 01, 2017 - January 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Medical Clinics
• Principal researcher: Flávia de Sousa Gehrke
• Grantee: Flávia de Sousa Gehrke
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Medicina do ABC (FMABC). Organização Social de Saúde. Fundação do ABC. Santo André , SP, Brazil
• Assoc. researchers: Beatriz da Costa Aguiar Alves Reis ; Fernando Luiz Affonso Fonseca ; Gabriel Zorello Laporta ; Renato Pereira de Souza

Abstract

Arboviruses represent a large public health problem in Brazil, especially the diseases caused by dengue, Zika and chikungunya viruses. In the case of dengue, there is a large number of cases and associated deaths, while Zika has been associated with cases of microcephaly since mid-2015 and chikungunya has caused cases of body pain lasting for months. Besides these diseases, there are others that are overlooked, such as Rocio, Mayaro, West Nile and Saint Louis encephalitis viruses. All of these diseases have the same initial symptoms in common (fever, headache and myalgia). Diagnosis of viruses is expensive and complicated, requiring additional tests to prove the absence of other diseases. Considering this, the objective of this study is to develop two diagnostic kits with high sensitivity, specificity and low cost. The first kit will be used to detect dengue, chikungunya or Zika viruses in one test. If the sample is negative for these three, it will be submitted to the second kit to detect Rocio, Mayaro, West Nile or Saint Louis encephalitis viruses. If the sample is shown positive for one of these pathogens, an active search for vectors will be performed in the probable transmission location. Furthermore, samples from pregnant patients will be submitted to inflammatory profile analysis. Therefore it is hoped that the results of this project can contribute to the increased diagnosis of arboviruses in the Santo André region, as well as the understanding of epidemiological questions concerning the vector(s), while continually improving the population's quality of life. (AU)