Influenza at the 2021 Grand Magal of Touba and possible spread to rural villages in South Senegal - a genomic epidemiological study.

BACKGROUND

Influenza is frequent among pilgrims participating to the Grand Magal de Touba (GMT), in Senegal, with a potential to spread to contacts when they return home.

METHODS

Ill pilgrims consulting at a health care center in Mbacké city close to Touba during the 2021 GMT, pilgrims returning to Dielmo and Ndiop villages, and patients who did not travel to Touba and consulted at healthcare centres in these two villages during Year 2021 were tested for Influenza virus by PCR on nasopharyngeal samples. Next-generation sequencing and comparative and phylogenetic analyses of Influenza A virus genomes were performed.

RESULTS

A total of 62/685 patients tested positive for Influenza A virus, including 34/53 consulting in Mbacké in late September, 6/129 pilgrims who returned home in early October, and 20/42 villagers from 3rd to 29th of October. Twenty-seven genomes were obtained. Four clusters were observed based on phylogenetic analyses, suggesting that Mbacké patients and returned pilgrims may have shared closely related viral strains with patients inhabiting the villages who did not participate in the GMT.

CONCLUSION

Villagers in Ndiop and Dielmo may have been infected with viral strains originating from the GMT and possibly imported by pilgrims who returned from the GMT.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of interests The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.