Author
Affilliation
Abstract
Brazil has experienced an unprecedented epidemic of Zika virus (ZIKV), with ~30,000 cases
reported to date. ZIKV was first detected in Brazil in May 2015, and cases of microcephaly
potentially associated with ZIKV infection were identified in November 2015.We performed
next-generation sequencing to generate seven Brazilian ZIKV genomes sampled from four
self-limited cases, one blood donor, one fatal adult case, and one newborn with microcephaly
and congenital malformations. Results of phylogenetic and molecular clock analyses show a
single introduction of ZIKV into the Americas, which we estimated to have occurred between
May and December 2013, more than 12 months before the detection of ZIKV in Brazil. The
estimated date of origin coincides with an increase in air passengers to Brazil from
ZIKV-endemic areas, as well as with reported outbreaks in the Pacific Islands. ZIKV genomes
from Brazil are phylogenetically interspersed with those from other South American and
Caribbean countries. Mapping mutations onto existing structural models revealed the context
of viral amino acid changes present in the outbreak lineage; however, no shared amino acid
changes were found among the three currently available virus genomes from microcephaly
cases. Municipality-level incidence data indicate that reports of suspected microcephaly in
Brazil best correlate with ZIKV incidence around week 17 of pregnancy, although this
correlation does not demonstrate causation. Our genetic description and analysis of ZIKV
isolates in Brazil provide a baseline for future studies of the evolution and molecular
epidemiology of this emerging virus in the Americas.
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Citation
FARIA, Nuno Rodrigues; et al. Zika virus in the Americas: Early epidemiological and genetic findings. Science, v.353, n.6283, p.345-349, Apr. 2016.
ISSN
0036-8075
Notes
AUTHORS - Nuno Rodrigues Faria,1,2* Raimunda do Socorro da Silva Azevedo,3*
Moritz U. G. Kraemer,2 Renato Souza,4 Mariana Sequetin Cunha,4 Sarah C. Hill,2
Julien Thézé,2 Michael B. Bonsall,2 Thomas A. Bowden,5 Ilona Rissanen,5
Iray Maria Rocco,4 Juliana Silva Nogueira,4 Adriana Yurika Maeda,4
Fernanda Giseli da Silva Vasami,4 Fernando Luiz de Lima Macedo,4 Akemi Suzuki,4
Sueli Guerreiro Rodrigues,3 Ana Cecilia Ribeiro Cruz,3 Bruno Tardeli Nunes,3
Daniele Barbosa de Almeida Medeiros,3 Daniela Sueli Guerreiro Rodrigues,3
Alice Louize Nunes Queiroz,3 Eliana Vieira Pinto da Silva,3 Daniele Freitas Henriques,3
Elisabeth Salbe Travassos da Rosa,3 Consuelo Silva de Oliveira,3 Livia Caricio Martins,3
Helena Baldez Vasconcelos,3 Livia Medeiros Neves Casseb,3 Darlene de Brito Simith,3
Jane P. Messina,2,6 Leandro Abade,2 José Lourenço,2 Luiz Carlos Junior Alcantara,7
Maricélia Maia de Lima,8 Marta Giovanetti,7 Simon I. Hay,9,5
Rodrigo Santos de Oliveira,1 Poliana da Silva Lemos,1 Layanna Freitas de Oliveira,1
Clayton Pereira Silva de Lima,1 Sandro Patroca da Silva,1
Janaina Mota de Vasconcelos,1 Luciano Franco,1 Jedson Ferreira Cardoso,1
João Lídio da Silva Gonçalves Vianez-Júnior,1 Daiana Mir,10 Gonzalo Bello,10
Edson Delatorre,10 Kamran Khan,11,12 Marisa Creatore,13 Giovanini Evelim Coelho,14
Wanderson Kleber de Oliveira,14 Robert Tesh,15 Oliver G. Pybus,2,6†‡
Marcio R. T. Nunes,1,15†‡ Pedro F. C. Vasconcelos3†‡; AFFILIATIONS - 1Center for Technological Innovation, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ministry of Health, Ananindeua, PA 67030-000, Brazil. 2Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford
OX1 3PS, UK. 3Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ministry of Health, Ananindeua, Pará State, Brazil. 4Instituto Adolfo Lutz, University of São Paulo,
São Paulo, Brazil. 5Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. 6Metabiota, San Francisco, CA 94104, USA. 7Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), Salvador,
Bahia, Brazil. 8Centre of Post Graduation in Collective Health, Department of Health, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil. 9Institute for Health Metrics and
Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98121, USA. 10Laboratório de AIDS and Imunologia Molecular, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 11Li Ka Shing Knowledge
Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 12Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 13Dalla Lana School of
Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 14Brazilian Ministry of Health, Brasília, Brazil. 15Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555, USA.
*These authors contributed equally to this work. †These authors contributed equally to this work.
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