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PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 17 July 2018
Elodie Calvez, Laurence Mousson, Marie Vazeille, Olivia O’Connor, Van-Mai Cao-Lormeau, Françoise Mathieu-Daudé, Nicolas Pocquet, Anna-Bella Failloux, Myrielle Dupont-Rouzeyrol
Summary
Zika virus (ZIKV) was isolated for the first time in Uganda in 1947. The virus was sporadically detected in Africa and Asia during few decades. The first human outbreak was declared in Yap Island in Micronesia in 2007. The virus reemerged in 2013 in French Polynesia and circulated throughout the Pacific region and in Americas between 2013 and 2017. ZIKV is transmitted to human by the bite of an infected mosquito. Aedes mosquitoes were particularly incriminated in the ZIKV outbreak. In this study, we showed for the first time the results of vector competence study of wild Aedes aegypti and Aedes polynesiensis from different islands of the Pacific region. Our results demonstrated an unexpected homogenous and low ZIKV vector competence for the different populations of these two vectors. These findings seemed to indicate that other factors have contributed to the rapid spread of ZIKV in the Pacific region.
https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0006637