Eco-epidemiology of Yellow Fever in the Northeast of Argentina

MANTECA MARIANA; LIZUAIN ARTURO A.; MUTTIS EVANGELINA; ACARDI SORAYA; SANCHEZ-GAVIER FRANCISCO; MARTI A. GERARDO; MICIELI MARIA VICTORIA; KOWALEWSKI MARTIN

La Plata

Congreso; II Congress of the Latin American Society for Vector Ecology; 2022

Latin American Society for Vector Ecology

During 2020-2021 there were several yellow fever (YF) epizooticevents in southern Brazil, close to the Argentina border.Corrientes province, which limits to the east with Brazil, lacked aplan to take actions when YF howler monkey cases were reportedin Brazil, then we decided to carry out integrated actionsconsidering all scientific-technical components regarding to thisdisease. We put together an interdisciplinary team including theCeNDIE-ANLIS Malbrán, EBCo-CECOAL-CONICET, CEPAVECONICET,IUCS Fundación H.A. Barceló, and the Directorate ofControl of Diseases Transmitted by Vectors. The followingactions were carried out: 1) surveys and monitoring of theremaining populations of black and gold howler monkeys(Alouatta caraya) to verify their presence/absence in areas wherethey suffered a YF outbreak in 2009; 2) update of the earlywarning community network against YF outbreaks using howlermonkey groups presence as YF sentinels, 3) YF vector samplingin wild and rural environments to determine the specificcomposition of culicids that share habitat with howler monkeys. Ateam of 10 people visited several sites including forests from April5 to 10, 2021. Although groups of monkeys or evidence of themwere found in most of the sites selected in this survey, theirdensity was extremely low compared to the populations locatedalong the Paraná River, confirming the critical situation of thisspecies in NE Corrientes. We did reinforce, together with theVector Directorate of the Province of Corrientes, the earlywarning community network, identifying and adding newreferents, and re-linking with those previously contacted.Regarding the mosquito community, 18 species of 8 differentgenera were collected. Among them, Aedes aegypti andHaemagogus leucocelaenus are main vectors in America of theYF virus in the urban and jungle cycle, respectively. Otherspecies involved or potentially involved in the jungle cycle were:Sabethes albiprivus, Sa. identicus, Ae. scapularis, Ae. serratus,Mansonia indubitans, Psorophora albipes, and Ps. ferox. Wesuggest the promotion of long-term monitoring of groups ofhowlers in the area and mosquito vectors in their roosts, theformalization of the early warning community network,implementing non-formal education workshops in schools andsimilar institutions to call attention to the situation of black andgold howler monkeys, their role as sentinels of public health, andthe importance of maintaining healthy ecosystems.