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Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 74(6), 2006, pp. 1078-1083
Copyright © 2006 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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SEROPREVALENCE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FLAVIVIRIDAE, TOGAVIRIDAE, AND BUNYAVIRIDAE ARBOVIRAL INFECTIONS IN RURAL CAMEROONIAN ADULTS

MARK H. KUNIHOLM*, NATHAN D. WOLFE, CLAIRE Y.-H. HUANG, E. MPOUDI-NGOLE, UBALD TAMOUFE, DONALD S. BURKE, AND DUANE J. GUBLER
Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland; Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Disease, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Department of Health and Human Services, Fort Collins, Colorado; Army Health Research Center, Yaounde, Cameroon; Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland; Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii

Arboviruses from the families Flaviviridae, Togaviridae, and Bunyaviridae are suspected to cause widespread morbidity in sub-Saharan African populations, but little research been done to document the burden and distribution of these pathogens. We tested serum samples from 256 Cameroonian adults from nine rural villages for the presence of Dengue-2 (DEN-2), West Nile (WN), Yellow fever (YF), Chikungunya (CHIK), O’nyong-nyong (ONN), Sindbis (SIN), and Tahyna (TAH) infection using standard plaque–reduction neutralization tests (PRNT). Of these samples, 12.5% were DEN-2 positive, 6.6% were WN positive, 26.9% were YF positive, 46.5% were CHIK seropositive, 47.7% were ONN positive, 7.8% were SIN positive, and 36.3% were TAH positive. DEN-2, YF, and CHIK seroprevalence rates were lower among individuals living in dwellings with grass or thatched roofs versus corrugated tin and in villages isolated from urban centers. Seroprevalence rates of YF and CHIK increased with age. These results suggest that inter-epidemic arboviral infection is common in central African populations.

Received November 16, 2005. Accepted for publication February 3, 2006.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank the government of Cameroon for permission to undertake this work; A. Boupda, K Long, the EICAM Project Staff, and the US Embassy in Yaounde for assistance in carrying out the work. We also thank Shawn J Silengo for assistance in carrying out the PRNT tests.

Financial support: This work was supported by an award from the US Military HIV Research Program (to D.B.); and an International Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institutes of Health, Fogarty International Center (K01 TW00003-01 to N.W.). NW is supported by the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Program (DP1-OD00370).

* Address correspondence to Mark H. Kuniholm, Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St., Baltimore, MD 21205. E-mail: mkunihol{at}jhsph.edu

Authors’ addresses: Mark Kuniholm and Nathan Wolfe, Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St., Baltimore, MD 21205, E-mails: mkunihol{at}jhsph.edu and nwolfe{at}jhsph.edu. Claire Huang, Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PO Box 2087, Fort Collins, CO 80522, E-mail: yxh0{at}cdc.gov. E. Mpoudi-Ngole and Ubald Tamoufe, Ancien Bureau Pam (Rue Ceper), BP 7039 , Yaounde, Cameroon, E-mails: empoudi2001{at}yahoo.co.uk and utamoufe{at}jhsph.edu. Donald Burke, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St. Baltimore, MD 21205, E-mail: dburke{at}jhsph.edu. Duane Gubler, Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Leahi Hospital, 3675 Kilauea Avenue, Honolulu, HI, E-mail: dgubler{at}hawaii.edu.

Reprint requests: Mark H. Kuniholm, Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St., Baltimore, MD 21205. E-mail: mkunihol{at}jhsph.edu.




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