Japanese Encephalitis and Rift Valley Fever

Dear Colleagues,

Geographical distribution and economical and/or sanitary impact or vector borne zoonosis has dramatically increased during the last decades. Globalization, climatic changes –extreme events or long-term trends, provide to pathogens new opportunities to spread, and if conditions are favorable to colonize new territories and cause outbreaks in disease-free areas. The prediction and the quantification of these risks, as well as their variability is crucial in order to adapt surveillance and control measures.

Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Rift Valley fever (RVF) are two major arbo-zoonosis. They both have a severe impact on human and/or animal health in endemic/enzootic areas. Their geographical distribution is limited to Asia/Pacific for JE, and Africa and Indian Ocean for RVF. Other arboviruses such as chikungunya or Zika viruses known to be established in a given geographical area have been recently circulating around the world. Recent findings suggest that JE and RVF viruses could travel, either within hots or infected vectors, and spread to new areas : a RVF human case was for the first time detected in China, probably imported from Angola [1-3]. The same year, a person who has never travelled outside Angola again, was declared co-infected by JE and yellow fever virus [4].

In this Special Issue, we aim to cover a wide range of topic focusing on RVF or JE infection and epidemiology, and provide (ii) new insights on their respective transmission, persistence and spread mechanisms in endemic/enzootic areas (ii)  evaluation of the risk and consequences of spread and (iii) potential for endemisation in disease-free areas.

All types of articles will be considered for publication, including short reports, primary research articles, and reviews.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Persistence, transmission and diffusion mechanisms
• Diversity, dynamics, competence, trophic behavior of vectors, niche modelling
• Host/pathogen, host/vector interactions
• Genetic diversity and virus reassortment
• Epidemiological system modelling
• Risk analysis

References

1. Shi Y, Zheng K, Li X, Li L, Li S, Ma J, et al. Isolation and phylogenetic study of Rift Valley fever virus from the first imported case to China. Virol Sin. 2017;32(3):253-6. doi: 10.1007/s12250-017-3949-z.
2. Liu J, Sun Y, Shi W, Tan S, Pan Y, Cui S, et al. The first imported case of Rift Valley fever in China reveals a genetic reassortment of different viral lineages. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2017;6(1):e4. doi: 10.1038/emi.2016.136.
3. Liu W, Sun F, Tong Y, Zhang S, Cao W. Rift Valley fever virus imported into China from Angola. Lancet Infect Dis 2016;16(11):1226. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(16)30401-7. .
4. Simon-Loriere E, Faye O, Prot M, Casademont I, Fall G, Fernandez-Garcia M, et al. Autochthonous Japanese Encephalitis with Yellow Fever Coinfection in Africa. N Engl J Med. 2017;376(15):1483-5. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc1701600.

Dr. Véronique Chevalier
Dr Philippe Dussart
Dr. Benoit Durand
Guest Editors

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