COVID-19 lineages in a minimally vaccinated island population: Genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Haiti

Carla N Mavian; Massimiliano S Tagliamonte; Maclean Bassett; Meer Alam; Melanie N Cash; Matt Hitchings; Rigan Louis; Alberto Riva; Kayvan Zainabadi; Marie Marcelle Deschamps; Bernard Liautaud; Vanessa Rouzier; Daniel W Fitzgerald; Jean William Pape; J Glenn Morris Jr; Marco Salemi

doi:10.1093/infdis/jiae520

COVID-19 lineages in a minimally vaccinated island population: Genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Haiti

J Infect Dis. 2024 Oct 23:jiae520. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiae520. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Carla N Mavian^{1

2}, Massimiliano S Tagliamonte^{1

2

3}, Maclean Bassett^{1

2}, Meer Alam^{1

4}, Melanie N Cash^{1

2}, Matt Hitchings^{1

5}, Rigan Louis¹, Alberto Riva³, Kayvan Zainabadi⁶, Marie Marcelle Deschamps⁷, Bernard Liautaud⁷, Vanessa Rouzier^{6

7}, Daniel W Fitzgerald⁶, Jean William Pape^{6

7}, J Glenn Morris Jr¹, Marco Salemi^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
² Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
³ Bioinformatics Core, Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
⁴ Department of Environmental and Global Health, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
⁵ Department of Biostatistics, College of Public Health and Health Professions & College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
⁶ Center for Global Health, Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
⁷ Les Centres GHESKIO, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

PMID: 39440935
DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiae520

Abstract

We monitored SARS-CoV-2 variants in Haiti from 2020-2023. Despite Haitian COVID-19 travel restrictions and in the setting of a vaccination rate of 2.7%, the timing and lineage evolution of the Haiti epidemic mirrored what was occurring in the rest of the world. Sources for importation of lineages into Haiti were the United States (US), the Dominican Republic (DR), Europe, and Brazil, with exportation of lineages to the US, DR, Europe, and Asia. Viral load in patients infected by the Delta and Omicron BA.1 were correlated along the phylogenies, suggesting that higher viral loads have facilitated strain transmission and evolution.

Keywords: Haiti; SARS-CoV-2; SARS-CoV-2 lineages; SARS-CoV-2 viral load.

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