Genomic and epidemiological monitoring of yellow fever virus transmission potential
Faria NR., Kraemer MUG., Hill SC., Goes de Jesus J., Aguiar RS., Iani FCM., Xavier J., Quick J., du Plessis L., Dellicour S., Thézé J., Carvalho RDO., Baele G., Wu C-H., Silveira PP., Arruda MB., Pereira MA., Pereira GC., Lourenço J., Obolski U., Abade L., Vasylyeva TI., Giovanetti M., Yi D., Weiss DJ., Wint GRW., Shearer FM., Funk S., Nikolay B., Fonseca V., Adelino TER., Oliveira MAA., Silva MVF., Sacchetto L., Figueiredo PO., Rezende IM., Mello EM., Said RFC., Santos DA., Ferraz ML., Brito MG., Santana LF., Menezes MT., Brindeiro RM., Tanuri A., dos Santos FCP., Cunha MS., Nogueira JS., Rocco IM., da Costa AC., Komninakis SCV., Azevedo V., Chieppe AO., Araujo ESM., Mendonça MCL., dos Santos CC., dos Santos CD., Mares-Guia AM., Nogueira RMR., Sequeira PC., Abreu RG., Garcia MHO., Abreu AL., Okumoto O., Kroon EG., de Albuquerque CFC., Lewandowski K., Pullan ST., Carroll M., de Oliveira T., Sabino EC., Souza RP., Suchard MA., Lemey P., Trindade GS., Drumond BP., Filippis AMB., Loman NJ., Cauchemez S., Alcantara LCJ., Pybus OG.
Arbovirus risk in Brazil Despite the existence of an effective vaccine for yellow fever, there are still almost 80,000 fatalities from this infection each year. Since 2016, there has been a resurgence of cases in Africa and South America—and this at a time when the vaccine is in short supply. The worry is that yellow fever will spread from the forests to the cities, because its vector, Aedes spp. mosquitoes, are globally ubiquitous. Faria et al. integrate genomic, epidemiological, and case distribution data from Brazil to estimate patterns of geographic spread, the risks of virus exposure, and the contributions of rural versus urban transmission (see the Perspective by Barrett). Currently, the yellow fever epidemic in Brazil seems to be driven by infections acquired while visiting forested areas and indicates spillover from susceptible wild primates. Science , this issue p. 894 ; see also p. 847