Virology in 2016
and 2017 saw a great deal of attention paid towards Zika Virus (ZIKV) outbreaks
in the Americas. In addition, recent introduction of West Nile virus to the
Americas as of 1999 sees the field of virology and infectious disease adapting
to the potential for these infections in a wide variety of patient populations.
Work very recently published by Robinson, Enriquez, and Ho synthesized a body
of work surrounding the development of WNV and ZIKV in the Americas,
specifically as infection and standards of treatment apply to Solid Organ
Transplantation (SOT) patient populations. Given the knowledge that WNV and
ZIKV are both flaviviruses, the analysis of incidence and epidemiology involved
in flavivirus infection in SOT patients is essential to the development of
therapeutic techniques for these types of infections. This review is novel in
that it holistically reviews cases of flavivirus infection in SOT, where
donor-derived disease and increased disease severity are continuing to be fully
understood in immunocompromised patient populations. In analyzing these two
sources of disease within the same context as a viral family, insight was
gained as to the progress that has been made in the field regarding SOT
infectious disease as a whole and suggests potential next steps for development
of diagnostics and treatments for flaviviruses. As clinical and scientific
understanding of this virus develops, it is essential for practicing physicians
to continue to develop protocols to protect SOT and immunocompromised patients,
in addition to driving research into the afflictions that do not have optimal
treatments. Work continues to try and develop vaccines and treatments for the diseases caused by these flaviviruses, and has resulted in many new types of Immunoglobulin based assays for the detection of viral titers in patients. This work is especially important for the immunocompromised patient and SOT communities, as limited data suggests that both WNV and ZIKV infections become exaggerated and more dangerous for these populations. Future work also continues to focus on the treatment of mosquito vectors to prevent their spread of the disease, with researchers finding new ways to either combat the disease within the mosquito or to combat the mosquito itself, much like the work of those combatting Yellow Fever in the late 1800's.
Source: Robinson
ML, Enriquez K, Ho DY. A Tale of Two Flaviviruses: West Nile Virus and Zika
Virus in Solid Organ Transplantation. OBM Transplantation 2019;3(1):32;
doi:10.21926/obm.transplant.1901038.
~Kyle Enriquez
