Sero-prevalence of arthropod-borne viral infections among Lukanga swamp residents in Zambia

by Caroline C. Chisenga, Samuel Bosomprah, Kalo Musukuma, Cynthia Mubanga, Obvious N. Chilyabanyama, Rachel M. Velu, Young Chan Kim, Arturo Reyes-Sandoval, Roma Chilengi

The re-emergence of vector borne diseases affecting millions of people in recent years has drawn attention to arboviruses globally. Here, we report on the sero-prevalence of chikungunya virus (CHIKV), dengue virus (DENV), mayaro virus (MAYV) and zika virus (ZIKV) in a swamp community in Zambia.

We collected blood and saliva samples from residents of Lukanga swamps in 2016 during a mass-cholera vaccination campaign. Over 10,000 residents were vaccinated with two doses of Shanchol^™ during this period. The biological samples were collected prior to vaccination (baseline) and at specified time points after vaccination. We tested a total of 214 baseline stored serum samples for IgG antibodies against NS1 of DENV and ZIKV and E2 of CHIKV and MAYV on ELISA. We defined sero-prevalence as the proportion of participants with optical density (OD) values above a defined cut-off value, determined using a finite mixture model.

Of the 214 participants, 79 (36.9%; 95% CI 30.5–43.8) were sero-positive for Chikungunya; 23 (10.8%; 95% CI 6.9–15.7) for Zika, 36 (16.8%; 95% CI 12.1–22.5) for Dengue and 42 (19.6%; 95% CI 14.5–25.6) for Mayaro. Older participants were more likely to have Zika virus whilst those involved with fishing activities were at greater risk of contracting Chikungunya virus. Among all the antigens tested, we also found that Chikungunya saliva antibody titres correlated with baseline serum titres (Spearman’s correlation coefficient = 0.222; p = 0.03).

Arbovirus transmission is occurring in Zambia. This requires proper screening tools as well as surveillance data to accurately report on disease burden in Zambia.