Phylogeographic analysis of dengue virus serotype 1 and cosmopolitan serotype 2 in Africa.

Objectives: The origin and spread of dengue virus (DENV) circulating in Africa remain poorly characterized, with African sequences representing <1% of global sequence data.

Methods: Whole genome sequencing was performed on serum samples (n = 29) from an undifferentiated fever study in 2016 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and from febrile travelers returning from Africa. The evolutionary history of the newly acquired African DENV-1 (n = 1) and cosmopolitan genotype DENV-2 (n = 18) genomes was reconstructed using a phylogeographic, time-scaled Bayesian analysis on a curated DENV panel including all known African sequences.

Nationwide Harmonization Effort for Semi-Quantitative Reporting of SARS-CoV-2 PCR Test Results in Belgium.

From early 2020, a high demand for SARS-CoV-2 tests was driven by several testing indications, including asymptomatic cases, resulting in the massive roll-out of PCR assays to combat the pandemic. Considering the dynamic of viral shedding during the course of infection, the demand to report cycle threshold (Ct) values rapidly emerged. As Ct values can be affected by a number of factors, we considered that harmonization of semi-quantitative PCR results across laboratories would avoid potential divergent interpretations, particularly in the absence of clinical or serological information.

A couple returning from Peru with persistent fever: think of histoplasmosis.

A couple presented with fever and strikingly similar symptoms starting exactly on the same day after returning from an adventurous journey in Peru. Symptom onset was 12 days after exposure to bats from a hollow tree. The further evolution underscores the disparate disease course of Histoplasmosis in different individuals, despite similar radiological findings.

Low Sensitivity of Real Time PCRs Targeting Retrotransposon Sequences for the Detection of Complex DNA in Human Serum.

While hybridization probe-based real-time PCR assays targeting highly repetitive multi-copy genome sequences for the diagnosis of complex or complex from human serum are well established, reports on the evaluation of respective assays for the identification of complex DNA in human serum are scarce. Here, we assessed the potential use of the retrotransposon sequences and from , and for the diagnosis of Asian infections. Based on available sequences and newly provided and sequences, hybridization probe-based real-time PCRs targeting and of the complex were designed both as consensus primer assays as well as multi-primer assays for the coverage of multiple variants of the target sequences.