Publications by authors named "Maricelia Lima"
Unraveling the Complexity of Chikungunya Virus Infection Immunological and Genetic Insights in Acute and Chronic Patients.
Genes (Basel)
October 2024
: The chikungunya virus (CHIKV), transmitted by infected Aedes mosquitoes, has caused a significant number of infections worldwide. In Brazil, the emergence of the CHIKV-ECSA genotype in 2014 posed a major public health challenge due to its association with more severe symptoms. : This study aimed to shed new light on the host immune response by examining the whole-blood transcriptomic profile of both CHIKV-acute and chronically infected individuals from Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil, a region heavily affected by CHIKV, Dengue, and Zika virus epidemics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDetection of encephalitis-causing viruses reveals predominance of chikungunya virus in the state of Bahia, Brazil.
Int J Infect Dis
August 2024
Article Synopsis
- Encephalitis, a serious brain condition, is often caused by common viruses like herpes and enteroviruses, but the role of arboviruses in Brazil is less understood.
- A study from 2020 to 2022 tested samples from patients experiencing encephalitis using advanced molecular and serological techniques.
- Among 43 evaluated patients, 37.2% showed positive results for various viruses, with chikungunya virus (CHIKV) being the most frequently detected, highlighting its significance in encephalitis cases during outbreaks in Brazil.
In 2015, the Zika virus (ZIKV) emerged in Brazil, leading to widespread outbreaks in Latin America. Following this, many countries in these regions reported a significant drop in the circulation of dengue virus (DENV), which resurged in 2018-2019. We examine age-specific incidence data to investigate changes in DENV epidemiology before and after the emergence of ZIKV.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- * Collaborative efforts led to the collection of 422 chikungunya virus genomes from 12 states, offering insights into how the virus has spread and evolved across the country.
- * Analysis of the genetic data revealed two distinct subclades of the virus and highlighted Northeast Brazil as the main spreading region, with immune system factors potentially influencing its genetic diversity.
Phylogenetic Reconstructions Reveal the Circulation of a Novel Dengue Virus-1V Clade and the Persistence of a Dengue Virus-2 III Genotype in Northeast Brazil.
Viruses
April 2023
Dengue fever is among the most significant public health concerns in Brazil. To date, the highest number of Dengue notifications in the Americas has been reported in Brazil, with cases accounting for a total number of 3,418,796 reported cases as of mid-December 2022. Furthermore, the northeastern region of Brazil registered the second-highest incidence of Dengue fever in 2022.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Mosquito-borne diseases like Yellow Fever, Zika, Chikungunya, and Dengue are causing big health problems in Brazil, especially since Chikungunya started spreading in 2014.
- In two years (2021-2022), scientists created 422 new virus genomes from 12 states to better understand how Chikungunya spreads, as there were over 312,000 reported cases.
- They discovered that the northeast region of Brazil is the main area where the virus is spreading to other places and found that certain factors in the immune system might be changing the virus's genes in Brazil.
Perinatal characteristics and longer-term outcomes in Brazilian children with confirmed or suspected congenital Zika infection: ZIKAction Paediatric Registry.
Dialogues Health
December 2023
Background: Despite growing scientific knowledge of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection, questions remain regarding ZIKV infection in pregnancy and congenital ZIKV syndrome (CZS).
Methods: The ZIKAction Paediatric Registry is an international registry of children with documented ZIKV exposure in utero and/or with confirmed or suspected CZS. Its aim is to characterize these children (i.
Article Synopsis
- New variants of SARS-CoV-2, like B.1.525, are complicating how public health officials track and control the pandemic globally.
- B.1.525 has unique genetic features linked to other variants such as P.1, B.1.1.7, and B.1.351.
- The first probable case of the B.1.525 variant was identified in a traveler returning from Nigeria, highlighting its potential spread.
Brazil experienced a large dengue virus (DENV) epidemic in 2019, highlighting a continuous struggle with effective control and public health preparedness. Using Oxford Nanopore sequencing, we led field and classroom initiatives for the monitoring of DENV in Brazil, generating 227 novel genome sequences of DENV1-2 from 85 municipalities (2015-2019). This equated to an over 50% increase in the number of DENV genomes from Brazil available in public databases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: In South East Asia, mosquito-borne viruses (MBVs) have long been a cause of high disease burden and significant economic costs. While in some SEA countries the epidemiology of MBVs is spatio-temporally well characterised and understood, in others such as Myanmar our understanding is largely incomplete.
Materials And Methods: Here, we use a simple mathematical approach to estimate a climate-driven suitability index aiming to better characterise the intrinsic, spatio-temporal potential of MBVs in Myanmar.
Zika virus (ZIKV) is an arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) in the genus of the family. Since the large outbreaks in French Polynesia in 2013-2014 and in Brazil in 2015, ZIKV has been considered a new public health threat. Similar to other related flavivirus, ZIKV is associated with mild and self-limiting symptoms such as rash, pruritus, prostration, headache, arthralgia, myalgia, conjunctivitis, lower back pain and, when present, a short-term low grade fever.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The emergence of the Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is currently expanding. In 2015, 38,332 cases of Chikungunya were reported to the Brazilian epidemiological surveillance system. Eighteen months after notification of the first case in the city of Feira de Santana, we conducted the first serosurvey to define the magnitude of transmission in a rural community in Brazil.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Brazil has faced a significant Zika virus epidemic since May 2015, with around 30,000 reported cases and concerns over microcephaly linked to the virus.
- Research involved sequencing seven Brazilian ZIKV genomes from various cases, revealing that the virus was likely introduced to the Americas between May and December 2013, well before it was officially detected in Brazil.
- Although no specific genetic changes were found in ZIKV associated with microcephaly, data suggests a connection between ZIKV incidence and the occurrence of suspected microcephaly cases around week 17 of pregnancy, highlighting a need for further studies on the virus's evolution and impact.