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Molecular epidemiology of dengue in the Pacific: introduction of two distinct strains of dengue virus type-1 [corrected] into Hawaii.

Imrie A, Zhao Z, Bennett SN, Kitsutani P, Laille M, Effler P

University of Hawaii at Manoa, John A. Burns School of Medicine, Biomedical Science Building Room D-204, 1960 East West Road, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. imrie@pbrc.hawaii.edu

In 2000, a major dengue epidemic, caused by the type-1 virus (DENV-1), began in the Pacific and Asia, with cases still being reported in 2006. The phylogenetic analysis of full-length sequences of the envelope-protein gene of DENV-1 isolates recovered during outbreaks in Hawaii and Tahiti in 2001-2002 indicated that most Hawaiian isolates were Tahitian in origin. All the Hawaiian and Tahitian isolates were identified as the Pacific subtype (i.e. subtype IV) of DENV-1. A Hawaiian isolate, collected from a resident who had travelled to Samoa, differed significantly at the nucleotide level, however, from all the other Hawaiian strains, clustering, in the phylogenetic analysis, with a virus previously isolated from another visitor to Samoa. These results not only indicate that two distinct strains of DENV-1 were introduced into Hawaii in 2001 but also illustrate the ease with which dengue can be carried across distances of many thousands of miles.

Published 9 June 2006 in Ann Trop Med Parasitol, 100(4): 327-36.
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