Undiagnosed West Nile virus lineage 2d infection in a febrile patient from South-west Uganda, 2018

Timothy Byaruhanga; Stuart Astbury; Jack D Hill; Theocharis Tsoleridis; Joseph G Chappell; John T Kayiwa; Irene J Ataliba; Annet M Nankya; Jonathan K Ball; Julius J Lutwama; C Patrick McClure

doi:10.1016/j.ijregi.2024.100462

Undiagnosed West Nile virus lineage 2d infection in a febrile patient from South-west Uganda, 2018

IJID Reg. 2024 Sep 26:13:100462. doi: 10.1016/j.ijregi.2024.100462. eCollection 2024 Dec.

Authors

Timothy Byaruhanga^{1

2

3}, Stuart Astbury^{4

5}, Jack D Hill^{1

6}, Theocharis Tsoleridis^{1

6

7}, Joseph G Chappell^{1

6}, John T Kayiwa², Irene J Ataliba², Annet M Nankya², Jonathan K Ball^{1

6

8}, Julius J Lutwama², C Patrick McClure^{1

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
² Uganda Virus Research Institute, Department of Arbovirology, Emerging and Re-emerging infectious diseases, Uganda.
³ Emerging Virus Research Unit, Department of Virology, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Surrey, UK.
⁴ Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre, Translational Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
⁵ National Institute for Health Research Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Nottingham, UK.
⁶ Wolfson Centre for Global Virus Research, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
⁷ The Pirbright Institute, Ash Road, Pirbright, Woking, UK.
⁸ Department of Tropical Disease Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK.

Abstract

We report the retrospective identification and subsequent recovery of a near-complete West Nile Virus lineage 2 genomes from a hospitalized patient with acute febrile illness in Uganda, using a combination of degenerate primer polymerase chain reaction screening and a novel 1200bp nanopore-based whole-genome amplicon sequencing scheme. This represents the first West Nile virus genome to be recovered from a human in Uganda since its discovery in 1937. Basic molecular rather than serological surveillance methods could be more widely deployed in the region to better diagnose febrile infections.

Keywords: Acute febrile illness; Amplicon sequencing; Flavivirus; Orthoflavivirus; PCR; West Nile virus.

Publication types

Case Reports