Clinical features and laboratory diagnosis of emerging arthropod-transmitted viruses: A Report from the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology Clinical Practice Committee

Abstract

Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) are an increasing global threat due to their ability to cause human disease and their expanding geographical distribution. They circulate in nature between arthropod vectors and vertebrate hosts. Infection of susceptible human hosts leads to harmful developmental and neurological manifestations. Arboviruses have caused recent outbreaks with significant public health implications, such as the Zika virus outbreak in the western hemisphere which caused fetal abnormalities in some infected pregnant women, or Eastern Equine Encephalitis which caused 15 deaths in 2019. This review discusses several arboviral infections and their clinical manifestations while highlighting the importance of laboratory diagnostics to detect infections and current attempts at vaccine development. The ability to accurately diagnose an arbovirus infection is critical for initiating a timely response to infections in order to improve patient outcomes.

Keywords: Arbovirus; Arthropod-borne; Chikungunya; Eastern Equine Encephalitis; Powassan; West Nile.