Herpes Infections in Suspected Cases of Yellow Fever in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Abstract

In the battle to quickly identify potential yellow fever arbovirus outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, active surveillance of acute febrile jaundice patients across the country is a powerful tool. However, patients who test negative for yellow fever virus infection are too often left without a diagnosis. By retroactively screening samples for other potential viral infections, we can both try to find sources of patient disease and also gain information on how commonly they circulate in the population. Here, we assessed the prevalence of human herpes viruses (HHVs) in these acute febrile jaundice disease samples. We found 22.6% had active HHV replication, and that over half were characterized by co-infection either among HHVs or between HHVs and other viral infections previously identified. Our results show that the role of HHV primary infection or reactivation in contributing to acute febrile jaundice disease should be further investigated.