First confirmation of imported dengue virus serotype 2 complete genome in urine from a Chinese traveler returning from India

Dengue virus (DENV) is a mosquito-borne virus that has four serotypes. Collection of serum from patients is time- and labor- consuming, and presents a high injury risk for infants and children. The genomic and serological diagnosis of imported dengue fever from a urine sample was used as a non-invasive diagnostic method in this study. A serum sample was collected on disease day 5, and a serum and urine sample were collected on disease day 8 and 18. The results of serological tests for DENV IgM revealed that the serum samples were positive for DENV. The results of RT-qPCR assay revealed that the serum sample collected on day 5 was DENV-positive; however, the serum sample collected on day 8 and 18 were negative for DENV. The urine sample collected on day 8 and 18 were DENV-positive. We also sequenced the complete DENV genome (10723 bp) from the urine sample (GenBank KF479233). The results of phylogenetic and epidemiological analysis indicated strong confirmation that the strain was located within the DENV-2 group with a 100% bootstrap value. In this report, we (1) provided the first evidence of a DENV infection that was imported from India to a non-endemic city of China, (2) investigated the DENV genome detection having a longer timeframe for positive detection in urine sample compared to previous studies, (3) provided the sequence results for the complete DENV-2 genome from a concentrated urine sample (4) discussed how virus-typing results could be used to manage the risk of sero-specific and re-infected travel-associated dengue fever.