International Science and Technology Center

Objective

Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) cause severe human diseases and have emerged as a major public health concern worldwide. The WHO has declared that acquired immune deficiency syndrome, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases are the world’s greatest challenges (1).

Among tropical diseases some emerging and re-emerging mosquito-transmitted RNA viruses of the family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus (West Nile virus – WNV, Dengue virus-DENV, Zika virus-ZIKV) have an enormous impact on human health, causing high levels of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Aedes (Aedes albopictus, Aedes aegypti) mosquitoes are primarily responsible for spreading these viruses. Increased migration, the rapid pace of globalization, travel to and from countries affected by these viruses, climate change and the spread of mosquitoes to new areas, contribute to the dissemination of these viruses and the infections they cause. Infectious diseases caused by WNV, DENV, and lately ZIKV, have crossed all international borders, and pose threats to global public health security. In 2016 the World Health Organization declared the ZIKV outbreaks were a global health emergency (2).
The current prevalence of mosquito- transmitted arboviruses and their contribution to human illnesses in Georgia is unknown; available published data for Flaviviruses is from the 80s of the last century.

In 2014, the Cooperative Biological Engagement program funded a one-year pilot TAP project “Epidemiology of febrile illnesses caused by Dengue virus and other arboviruses in Georgia”, which generated substantial preliminary data. In mosquito surveillance that was conducted in only one city, Batumi, in Western Georgia, the distribution of mosquito vectors capable of transmitting flaviviruses (Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus ) was first discovered in our country (9). In the same project, serological studies on serum samples from patients with undefined febrile illnesses revealed patients with positive IgG-class antibodies to WNV and DENV, and those were confirmed by serum neutralization tests.

The above mentioned pilot project remains the only one which addressed flaviviruses, and the study was restricted to one selected location of the country. Therefore knowledge of the epidemiology, genetic characteristics, geographic range and impact of flaviviruses on Public Health in Georgia is limited. The emergence of ZIKV emphasizes the urgent need for a comprehensive surveillance study of mosquito-transmitted flaviviruses in Georgia.

We propose a 3 year project to (a) study the diversity and distribution of mosquito species responsible for the transmission of flaviviruses in all of Georgia, (b) detect and isolate viruses from environmental and clinical samples and to further characterize them genetically.

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