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Arbovirus Epidemiology: The Mystery of Unnoticed Epidemics in Ghana, West Africa
It is evident that all the countries surrounding Ghana have experienced epidemics of key arboviruses of medical importance, such as the recent dengue fever epidemic in Burkina Faso. Therefore, Ghana is considered a ripe zone for epidemics of arboviruses, mainly dengue. Surprisingly, Ghana never expe...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9610185/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36296190 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10101914 |
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author | Agboli, Eric Tomazatos, Alexandru Maiga-Ascofaré, Oumou May, Jürgen Lühken, Renke Schmidt-Chanasit, Jonas Jöst, Hanna |
author_facet | Agboli, Eric Tomazatos, Alexandru Maiga-Ascofaré, Oumou May, Jürgen Lühken, Renke Schmidt-Chanasit, Jonas Jöst, Hanna |
author_sort | Agboli, Eric |
collection | PubMed |
description | It is evident that all the countries surrounding Ghana have experienced epidemics of key arboviruses of medical importance, such as the recent dengue fever epidemic in Burkina Faso. Therefore, Ghana is considered a ripe zone for epidemics of arboviruses, mainly dengue. Surprisingly, Ghana never experienced the propounded deadly dengue epidemic. Indeed, it is mysterious because the mosquito vectors capable of transmitting the dengue virus, such as Aedes aegypti, were identified in Ghana through entomological investigations. Additionally, cases may be missed, as the diagnostic and surveillance capacities of the country are weak. Therefore, we review the arbovirus situation and outline probable reasons for the epidemic mystery in the country. Most of the recorded cases of arbovirus infections were usually investigated via serology by detecting IgM and IgG immunoglobulins in clinical samples, which is indicative of prior exposure but not an active case. This led to the identification of yellow fever virus and dengue virus as the main circulating arboviruses among the Ghanaian population. However, major yellow fever epidemics were reported for over a decade. It is important to note that the reviewed arboviruses were not frequently detected in the vectors. The data highlight the necessity of strengthening the diagnostics and the need for continuous arbovirus and vector surveillance to provide an early warning system for future arbovirus epidemics. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9610185 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-96101852022-10-28 Arbovirus Epidemiology: The Mystery of Unnoticed Epidemics in Ghana, West Africa Agboli, Eric Tomazatos, Alexandru Maiga-Ascofaré, Oumou May, Jürgen Lühken, Renke Schmidt-Chanasit, Jonas Jöst, Hanna Microorganisms Review It is evident that all the countries surrounding Ghana have experienced epidemics of key arboviruses of medical importance, such as the recent dengue fever epidemic in Burkina Faso. Therefore, Ghana is considered a ripe zone for epidemics of arboviruses, mainly dengue. Surprisingly, Ghana never experienced the propounded deadly dengue epidemic. Indeed, it is mysterious because the mosquito vectors capable of transmitting the dengue virus, such as Aedes aegypti, were identified in Ghana through entomological investigations. Additionally, cases may be missed, as the diagnostic and surveillance capacities of the country are weak. Therefore, we review the arbovirus situation and outline probable reasons for the epidemic mystery in the country. Most of the recorded cases of arbovirus infections were usually investigated via serology by detecting IgM and IgG immunoglobulins in clinical samples, which is indicative of prior exposure but not an active case. This led to the identification of yellow fever virus and dengue virus as the main circulating arboviruses among the Ghanaian population. However, major yellow fever epidemics were reported for over a decade. It is important to note that the reviewed arboviruses were not frequently detected in the vectors. The data highlight the necessity of strengthening the diagnostics and the need for continuous arbovirus and vector surveillance to provide an early warning system for future arbovirus epidemics. MDPI 2022-09-27 /pmc/articles/PMC9610185/ /pubmed/36296190 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10101914 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Review Agboli, Eric Tomazatos, Alexandru Maiga-Ascofaré, Oumou May, Jürgen Lühken, Renke Schmidt-Chanasit, Jonas Jöst, Hanna Arbovirus Epidemiology: The Mystery of Unnoticed Epidemics in Ghana, West Africa |
title | Arbovirus Epidemiology: The Mystery of Unnoticed Epidemics in Ghana, West Africa |
title_full | Arbovirus Epidemiology: The Mystery of Unnoticed Epidemics in Ghana, West Africa |
title_fullStr | Arbovirus Epidemiology: The Mystery of Unnoticed Epidemics in Ghana, West Africa |
title_full_unstemmed | Arbovirus Epidemiology: The Mystery of Unnoticed Epidemics in Ghana, West Africa |
title_short | Arbovirus Epidemiology: The Mystery of Unnoticed Epidemics in Ghana, West Africa |
title_sort | arbovirus epidemiology: the mystery of unnoticed epidemics in ghana, west africa |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9610185/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36296190 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10101914 |
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