Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) are primarily maintained in nature in transmission cycles between hematophagous arthropods and vertebrate hosts, but an increasing number of arboviruses have been isolated from or indirectly detected in the urogenital tract and sexual secretions of their vertebrate hosts, indicating that further investigation on the possibility of sexual transmission of these viruses is warranted. The most widely recognized sexually-transmitted arbovirus is Zika virus but other arboviruses, including Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus and dengue virus, might also be transmitted, albeit occasionally, by this route. This review summarizes our current understanding on the ability of arboviruses to be sexually transmitted. We discuss the sexual transmission of arboviruses between humans and between vertebrate animals, but not arthropod vectors. Every taxonomic group known to contain arboviruses (Asfarviridae, Bunyavirales, Flaviviridae, Orthomyxoviridae, Reoviridae, Rhabdoviridae and Togaviridae) is covered.

A total of 1,090 residents of the city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, on the Mexico-U.S. border presented at hospitals and clinics of the Secretariat of Health, Mexico, in 2015 with symptoms characteristic of dengue. Dengue virus (DENV) antigen was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in acute sera from 134 (12.3%) patients. Sera from select patients ( = 34) were also tested for chikungunya virus (CHIKV) RNA by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Thirteen (38.2%) patients, including five DENV antigen-positive patients, were positive. Sera from three CHIKV RNA-positive patients were further assayed by virus isolation in cell culture and CHIKV was recovered on each occasion. The genome of one isolate and structural genes of the other two isolates were sequenced. In conclusion, we present evidence of CHIKV and DENV coinfections in patients who live near the Mexico-U.S. border and provide the first genome sequence of a CHIKV isolate from northern Mexico.

Tick-borne bacterial pathogens (TBBPs) show a worldwide distribution and represent a great impact on public health. The brown dog tick (Rhipicephalus sanguineus) is a vector of several pathogens that affect dogs and sometimes humans as well. In addition, TBBPs represent a diagnostic challenge and imply financial resources and medical treatment for long periods of time. In the present study, R. sanguineus s. l. was identified as the main tick species naturally parasitizing dogs that inhabit. Juárez City, Chihuahua, in the Paso del Norte region, Mexico–US Border, representing 99.8% of the cases. Additionally, an end-point PCR was performed to search for whether pathogens in R. sanguineus s. l. can transmit in DNA extracted from ticks and dog blood samples. This is the first molecular detection of Rickettsia rickettsi infecting domestic dogs in Mexico; however, other pathogens were also identified, such as Ehrlichia canis and Anaplasma platys in both ticks and dog blood samples, while Anaplasma phagocytophilum was identified only in dog blood samples. Moreover, co-detection in tick pools and co-infection in the analyzed dog blood samples could be found. Similarly, this research showed that dogs were found mostly parasitized by adult female ticks, increasing the possibility of transmission of E. canis.