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Project
Strengthening Clinical and Genomics Research Capacity on Arboviruses
The West African region continues to experience major outbreaks of epidemic pathogens, including arbovirus (dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya), highlighting the need to understand the natural history of these diseases and strengthen the capacity for a coordinated response to their growing threat in the sub-region.
The overall goal of this project is to advance sub-regional epidemic preparedness and response through multi-disciplinary, integrated collaborative research and training initiatives to facilitate evidence-based policy for surveillance and control of epidemic pathogens in WAC-CREP countries of Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone with a focus on dengue, Zika, and chikungunya.
Specifically, this project seeks to:
- assess the extent of the geographic and temporal distribution of asymptomatic and symptomatic arboviral pathogens to elucidate inter-epidemic maintenance of these pathogens in human and mosquito vectors
- examine the link between human host factors and virus genetic variants, in relation with clinical manifestation and disease severity
- strengthen subregional clinical research platform for drug and vaccine trials against arboviruses
Using innovative metagenomic approaches, the project contributes to multiple pathogen discovery, providing high-level laboratory and clinical research capacity to support countries’ epidemic preparedness for response to epidemics.
Human-made environmental changes across Africa erode biodiversity and disrupt ecosystems, with impacts on the spread of zoonotic disease with epidemic potential. This project will use mosquitoes as natural “samplers” of vertebrates to monitor changes in pathogen diversity and transmission dynamics.
Using advanced diagnostic technologies in serology and metagenomics, the programme will analyse mosquito bloodmeals from humans and animals to detect prior exposure to 20 epidemic-prone pathogens; assess changes in exposure risk along “urban–rural–forest” transects; and collect windborne mosquitoes at high altitude, as well as on the ground, to identify their role in spreading arboviruses over long distances.
Monitoring changes in the species composition of mosquitoes, vertebrate hosts, and pathogens, this work will analyse the effect of human-made environmental changes, bolster early-warning systems, and inform prevention and mitigation strategies. The programme will also generate baselines for assessing future changes and address knowledge gaps such as identifying pathogen reservoirs.
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