article · The Lancet Global Health
Mosquito-borne arboviruses such as dengue, chikungunya, and Zika present growing global public health threats, driven into new regions by urbanisation, climate change, and vector expansion. Effective molecular surveillance provides critical early warning of outbreaks, tracks emerging virulent lineages, monitors resistance to vaccines and vector control strategies, and ensures the accuracy of diagnostic assays. However, existing arbovirus genomic data remain fragmented, delayed by publication processes, and hindered by inconsistent metadata. Building on genomic surveillance models established during the COVID-19 pandemic, the EpiArbo platform enables rapid, equitable genomic data sharing. Initially focusing on dengue and chikungunya before expanding to Zika and other viruses, the platform integrates genetic, pharmacological, and vector intervention data to improve global outbreak response.
Arboviral diseases affect hundreds of millions of people annually, with warming climates and expanding mosquito populations threatening new territories. Rapid genomic surveillance enables public health authorities to detect dangerous variants earlier, assess the performance of diagnostic tests, and evaluate interventions such as vaccines or mosquito-control strategies before outbreaks overwhelm healthcare systems.
The abstract details a non-commercial open data-sharing platform, EpiArbo, rather than a commercial product. However, the aggregated genomic surveillance data could directly assist biotechnology firms, vaccine manufacturers, and diagnostic developers in monitoring target mutations that affect drug efficacy, vaccine protection, or assay sensitivity. These industrial applications represent near-term secondary uses of an operational public health database.
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Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) are transmitted by arthropod vectors to humans, leading to disease outbreaks mainly in tropical regions of the world.1Weaver SC Charlier C Vasilakis N Lecuit M Zika, chikungunya, and other emerging vector-borne viral diseases.Annu Rev Med. 2018; 69: 395-408Crossref PubMed Scopus (234) Google Scholar Although many arboviruses are known, three Aedes-spp-borne viruses are particularly concerning for humans at a global scale due to recurring large and expanding epidemic outbreaks of dengue virus, Zika virus, and chikungunya virus. These viruses cause a heavy disease burden with mild to potentially life-threatening symptoms, resulting in substantial short-term and long-term morbidity and mortality.2Labeaud AD Bashir F King CH Measuring the burden of arboviral diseases: the spectrum of morbidity and mortality from four prevalent infections.Popul Health Metr. 2011; 9: 1Crossref PubMed Scopus (115) Google Scholar Epidemiological estimates underscore the impact of these viruses, with half of the world population at risk of dengue virus infection and around 100–400 million cases and 20 000 deaths reported each year.3Bhatt S Gething PW Brady OJ et al.The global distribution and burden of dengue.Nature. 2013; 496: 504-507Crossref PubMed Scopus (6065) Google Scholar In addition to worsening outbreaks in tropical areas, there has been an increase in disease in subtropical and temperate regions, driven by the expansion of the main vectors Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus to new areas associated with urbanisation, globalisation, human mobility, and climate change.4Kraemer MUG Reiner RC Brady Jr, OJ et al.Past and future spread of the arbovirus vectors Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus.Nat Microbiol. 2019; 4: 854-863Crossref PubMed Scopus (474) Google Scholar An additional 100 million people are estimated to be at risk of infection owing to wider transmission seasons in high-altitude areas and temperate regions of the world in the next 50 years.5Colón-González FJ Sewe MO Tompkins AM et al.Projecting the risk of mosquito-borne diseases in a warmer and more populated world: a multi-model, multi-scenario intercomparison modelling study.Lancet Planet Health. 2021; 5: e404-e414Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (73) Google Scholar To strengthen the mitigation of epidemics of these arboviruses, WHO launched the Global Arbovirus Initiative in March, 2022, to build a coalition of key stakeholders to improve surveillance and prevention.6Balakrishnan VS WHO launches global initiative for arboviral diseases.Lancet Microbe. 2022; 3: e407Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Google Scholar Molecular surveillance of arboviruses is crucial to assess lineage prevalence and evaluate the impact of these viruses on human populations. For instance, genomic data and meaningful epidemiological metadata are essential for early warning of virus outbreaks; understanding epidemic potential of endemic and newly introduced virus strains; early introduction of new strains into naive populations; detection of emergence of more virulent lineages and virus lineages resistant to interventions such as vaccines, antiviral drugs, and various vector control interventions (eg, Wolbachia-spp-infected mosquito strategies); evaluation of intervention effectiveness; characterisation of the transmission network between vertebrates, including humans, and vector species; and detection of genomic variants that could affect molecular assays. Following the implementation of genomic surveillance in most countries around the world for monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 lineages, there is now an opportunity to implement routine and sustainable large-scale genomic surveillance for high-impact arboviruses with substantial human disease burden. However, comprehensive epidemiological and risk assessment analyses are only possible through rapid genomic data sharing associated with relevant metadata and data aggregation. Despite various well intentioned efforts to establish databases and standardise arbovirus genomic data, the available information is highly heterogeneous geographically and over time and is littered with inconsistent metadata.7Schreiber MJ Ong SH Holland RCG et al.DengueInfo: a web portal to dengue information resources.Infect Genet Evol. 2007; 7: 540-541Crossref PubMed Scopus (0) Google Scholar, 8Atre NM Alagarasu K Shil P ArVirInd—a database of arboviral antigenic proteins from the Indian subcontinent.PeerJ. 2022; 10: e13851Crossref Scopus (1) Google Scholar Normally, such data only become available after peer reviewed publication, which hinders or delays genomic epidemiology inferences and outbreak response and intervention. Therefore, new high-quality curated databases and data sharing solutions are needed to augment the efforts to tackle arbovirus outbreaks across the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown not only that worldwide genomic surveillance is possible, but also that equitable data sharing systems and cross-border collaboration are important to tackle pathogen threats. The Global Data Science Initiative (GISAID) is an important data science initiative that allows timely data sharing and aggregate data analysis for public health intervention, while also stimulating collaborative studies and protecting sensitive data and data generator authorship. With the goal of effectively implementing global genomic surveillance for arboviruses with substantial public health impact, we encourage public health researchers working on molecular surveillance of arboviruses to contribute and share data through EpiArbo, a new data sharing platform with an initial focus on dengue virus and chikungunya virus, and expanding to Zika virus, built on the success of GISAID's EpiFlu and EpiCov databases. This new implementation has many features that incorporate the complexity of arbovirus transmission and allows the integrated assessment of genetic, pharmacological, and vector interventions. Moreover, this database can be easily expanded to cover other arboviruses of concern, such as West Nile virus, yellow fever virus, and Japanese encephalitis virus. As humanity recovers from the worst phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, molecular surveillance continues to be crucial for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 evolution and other epidemic-prone and difficult-to-control viruses with high public health impact. Engagement of the global community will be crucial to maximise the benefits from aggregated genomic epidemiology to tackle the increasing arbovirus burden across the planet.9Jagtap S Pattabiraman C Sankaradoss A Krishna S Roy R Evolutionary dynamics of dengue virus in India.PLoS Pathog. 2023; 19: e1010862Crossref Scopus (1) Google Scholar, 10Naveca FG Santiago GA Maito RM et al.Reemergence of dengue virus serotype 3, Brazil, 2023.Emerg Infect Dis. 2023; 29: 1482-1484Crossref Scopus (0) Google Scholar A full list of researchers that endorse this initiative can be found in the appendix. This work was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt and the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior and was partly supported by the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Coordinating Research on Emerging Arboviral Threats Encompassing the Neotropics grant (U01 AI151807) from the US National Institutes of Health. We declare no competing interests. Download .pdf (.15 MB) Help with pdf files Supplementary appendix
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DOI: 10.1016/s2214-109x(23)00325-x
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