Vinod Scaria Profile picture
Jul 13, 2021 13 tweets 9 min read Read on X
The recent outbreaks of #Zika Virus in #Kerala has renewed interest in this virus. This tweetorial explains some key aspects about the virus and why we should be actively using #genomics for #GeneticEpidemiology Image
The disease in most people is mild. Majority of people infected with Zika virus DO NOT develop symptoms. Symptoms are generally mild including fever, rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise, and headache, and usually last for 2–7 days.
Source: @CDCgov Image
Death is RARE
Infection during pregnancy can cause microcephaly & congential malformations.
Neurological complications like Guillain-Barré syndrome, neuropathy and myelitis are seen in some.
The virus is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, which bite during the day.
May also be transmitted vertically, through sexual contact or blood transfusions @JohnsHopkinsIH Image
The virus belongs to the genus Flavivirus, and has a single stranded RNA genome of ~10K nucleotides. Image
The virus was originally detected in the Ziika forest in Uganda in 1947. Evidence of Human infection came from serological studies in 1952 in #Uganda and #Tanzania Image
Outbreaks of Zika virus have happened consistently across the globe - in Africa, spreading through Asia and recently in Central America Image
and this spread has been mirrored in the genetic lineages. The American lineage -derived from the recent Central American outbreaks seems to have diverged out of the Asian lineage. The Asian lineage is supposedly associated with more infectivity compared to African lineages. Image
Genome sequencing and Genetic Epidemiology for surveillance therefore is critical in the #Kerala outbreak to identify the #origin, #spread, #evolution apart from developing newer and better #diagnostics and public-health measures to contain the spread. Image
For folks interested in contributing to ongoing #OpenResearch on Zika virus and contribute to building tools and resources to aid in a better understanding may also drop in at kaiser.genomes.in/zikaopen Image
A community-driven dashboard is now online kaiser.genomes.in/zikaopen

#CitizenScience #OpenData #OutbreakResponse Image
Understanding the animal reservoir is quite important in controlling the long-term spread of #zika virus since significant evidence exist on non-human reservoirs including domestic animals. Image
Nucleic acid amplification tests like RT-PCR is ideal for #ZikaVirus diagnosis since antibodies elicited by zika virus could cross react with many other viruses including #Dengue . We now have a collection of RT-PCR assays at kaiser.genomes.in/zikaopen compiled by @Abhinav_Jain_19 Image

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More from @vinodscaria

Jul 8
#Zika virus outbreaks in #India. Should we be worried ?
A long 🧵 Image
#Zika is not a new virus.

🔴We have known it for decades, and India has seen previous, albeit small outbreaks in multiple states. Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kerala, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, MP, TamilNadu , Delhi, Punjab, Telengana and Jharkhand in the previous years. Image
🔴This year, we have a multi-state outbreak with cases reported from Karnataka, Kerala and at least three districts in Maharashtra.

🔴The actual number of cases are unknown as there is no public tracker yet and the known is possibly just a small fraction of the disease burden. Image
Read 21 tweets
Jun 11, 2023
🔴 #Mpox aka #Monkeypox is spreading .
But not where you think it is.
A short 🧵 Image
The latest situation report on the multi-country outbreak of #mpox from @WHO has come out . In Summary:
▶️ 87,929 cases and 146 deaths from Jan 2022
▶️ 111 countries / territories affected as of date Image
▶️ The European and American Outbreak of #mpox which followed a super spreader event last year is pretty well under control.
There are few cases still being reported, but vaccination campaigns have brought the outbreak pretty well under control. Image
Read 13 tweets
Jun 10, 2023
🔴 Characterisation of #Influenza A #H3N8 with hallmarks of continued evolution, spread in poultry and occasional spillover to humans from #China 🇨🇳

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jv…
▶️ Continued infection of poultry and spillover into humans could potentially accelerate evolution and adaptation to human to human tranmission
▶️ Adaptation to other mammals noted in the past, through evolutionary processes.
▶️ Genome analysis suggest the origin by reassortment of genomes from poultry H9N2 backbone
Read 7 tweets
Dec 21, 2022
#COVID19 in #China.
What we know and what we don't.
A long thread, summarizing my thoughts, which I hope to keep updated over the coming weeks. Image
To give a brief background:
The aggressive approach by #China to contain the virus following initial cases in Wuhan, has been seen with awe and admiration by man.
This included:
🔴Strict quarantine & lockdown
🔴Massive testing & surveillance
🔴Early vaccines
🔴Health Infra
While COVID19 spread across the rest of the world, infecting and killing millions of people, and putting healthcare infrastructure to the brim of their capacities, China remained isolated, contained the spread and remained an outlier in many aspects.
Data @WHO Image
Read 13 tweets
Oct 13, 2022
🔘Recombinant variants of SARS-CoV-2 and XBB/XBB.1 the recent and emerging recombinant variants with large immune evasive potential.
A short 🧵on emerging evidence. Image
Recombinant variants of viruses are generated when two or more viruses co-infect a cell at the same time. Chances for co-infection is rare, but nevertheless they occur.
Genomic surveillance can efficiently pick up such recombinant isolates. Image
There are 49 odd recombinant variants now catalogued for #SARSCoV2 by @PangoNetwork , an open collaboration of scientists across the world.
PANGO names recombinant variants of #SARSCoV2 with a name starting with 'X'. Image
Read 21 tweets
Jul 27, 2022
🔴The curious case of Indian #Monkeypox Genomes
Wonderful effort by clinicians in @KeralaHealth who diagnosed the disease and researchers at @icmr_niv, we now have sequences of MPX isolates in @GISAID .

This short 🧵is on what the early genomes say.
Analysis @bani_jolly
Briefly 4⃣ genome sequences have been deposited for two samples (EPI_ISL_13953610 and EPI_ISL_13953611) along with 2 re-sequenced genomes from isolates of one of the sample.
▶️Both the isolates were from early cases reported from Kerala
▶️Both cases have a travel history
The present sustained human-human transmission of the MPX virus is believed to have happened via superspreader events in Europe with 16000+ cases now spread across 70+ countries,
The initial cases seemingly were predominantly among gays/bisexuals and msm networks
Read 13 tweets

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