Work

Zika Virus in a Traveler Returning to China from Caracas, Venezuela, February 2016

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: movements (6), this infection was considered to be autochthonous, indicating endemicity of the C. gattii VGIIb-like variant in Nova Scotia and highlighting the value of nonmigratory animals as sentinels for emerging diseases (7).Incidence for this disease is highest in the Pacific Northwest, where the primary agents are C. gattii VGII genotypes (2,4).A pertinent literature review and consultation with regional public and veterinary health authorities determined that Québec was the most eastern province in Canada where crytococcosis associated with C. gattii VGII has caused clinical disease that was not potentially travel related in humans (Phillippe Dufresne, pers.comm.).In eastern North America, the C. gattii VGIIb genotype is reported to have caused disseminated cryptococcosis in a human in Florida, USA (8,9).Because C. gattii is potentially pervasive in the environment, the Nova Scotia Department of Health has alerted provincial infectious disease specialists and the provincial public health laboratory to ensure availability of the diagnostic capacity to test for the fungus.The C. gattii VGIIb genotype causes substantial, lifethreatening disease in otherwise healthy hosts (2), and a unique VGIIb-like variant is endemic to Atlantic Canada.Therefore, continued surveillance by physicians and veterinarians in the region is warranted. AcknowledgmentsWe thank Beatrice Despres for her technical support in the operation and maintenance of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry for sample analysis.We also thank Bob Petri and Donald Sam for their ongoing support of the scanning wildlife health surveillance program in Atlantic Canada and encouragement of Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources field

Source: Emerging infectious diseases

DOI: 10.3201/eid2206.160273