Serological Evidence Of Dengue Infection In Nonhuman Primates In Peninsular Malaysia
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Date
2015-03
Authors
KEE STUEBING, WILLIAM
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Abstract
Dengue viruses (DENV) circulate in both human and sylvatic cycles. In 2008, a
Malaysian university student was diagnosed with dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and
a sylvatic DENV serotype 2 was isolated from his blood. Current information on
sylvatic DENV cycles in these heavily populated areas of Malaysia is nonexistent.
Sylvatic DENV can cause severe disease (DHF) in humans. Therefore, the objective of
this study was to determine the location and host species of sylvatic DENV cycles as a
first step in assessing the risk that such zoonotic viruses pose to the surrounding human
population. In this study, 430 Macaca fascicularis, six Macaca nemestrina, and six
Semnopithecus cristatus monkeys from five states in Peninsular Malaysia were trapped
from the wild and screened for DENV-2 neutralizing antibodies using the Plaque
Neutralization Reduction Test (PRNT). DENV-2 neutralizing antibodies were found in
67 M. fascicularis (16%) and one M. nemestrina (17%) macaques from Pahang, Negeri
Sembilan, and Selangor. Two seropositive monkeys were sampled from areas with a
population of 1.8 million people. DENV-2 neutralizing samples were obtained from 20
macaques in a single outing in Negeri Sembilan. The limitations of serological evidence
and absence of virus isolation suggest that the DENV-2 neutralizing antibodies detected
in this study are evidence for either the presence of sylvatic DENV cycles or of human
DENV spillback into macaques living near human populations. Current dengue control
measures do not account for the zoonotic spillover of sylvatic strains into the human
population or the spillback of human DENV into non-human primates. The blood
isolation of a DENV from a macaque is needed to establish the identity of the virus that
currently circulates in primates living within these zones of emergence.
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Keywords
Serological Evidence Of Dengue Infection In Nonhuman Primates , In Peninsular Malaysia