Uganda International Center for Excellence in Research

National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Emerging/re-emerging zoonotic diseases are a major global health problem. Linking comprehensive pathogen surveillance of arthropod/vector populations in Uganda with public health surveillance at the regional and international level will make an important contribution to human and animal health in East Africa and the One World One Health concept in general. There will be a focus on rodent- and tick-borne pathogens potentially causing disease in humans, wildlife, and livestock. A more comprehensive understanding of the ecology of known and unknown rodent-borne zoonotic pathogens is essential for a risk assessment for local and global human and animal health. The establishment of emerging/re-emerging virus program on the campus of the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI), Entebbe, Uganda is ongoing. We have procured most of the necessary equipment for the UVRI site; further equipment will be purchased when needed. Over the previous and current funding period we have refined molecular and serological detection assays for several pathogens including arenaviruses, bunyaviruses, coronaviruses filoviruses, and flaviviruses. In this fiscal year, efforts were directed towards making the laboratory fully operational. Several key pieces of equipment were installed or have been ordered and we continue to purchase necessary equipment. We have established task-orders with UVRI to pay for staff salary, utilities and maintenance of the laboratory space. We have also begun research at the Uganda ICER site directed towards serological screening of vector-borne pathogens in livestock and in humans. We have established a collaboration with researchers at the Ugandan National Livestock Resource Research Institute to conduct field sampling programs in which serum from livestock in several districts throughout Uganda was collected. At the ICER laboratory, these samples were processed to screen for vector-borne diseases via qRT-PCR and ELISA. High seropositivity for Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus and Rift Valley Fever Virus was measured in several livestock cohorts (unpublished data) adding to our understanding of the disease prevalence in these regions. In parallel to these efforts, we have established a collaboration with researchers at UVRI to conduct rodent trapping at homesites in association with our livestock sampling efforts. We are collecting serum and tissue samples to screen for rodent-borne pathogens. Lastly, we have also established a research project with NIH researcher, Dr. Steven Reynolds who leads the Rakai Community Cohort which for years has conducted community surveillance and serum collection from thousands of participants living in the Rakai district of Uganda. We are using serum from this cohort to screen for serological evidence of infection with a variety of vector-borne diseases. These data will be used in conjunction with the wealth of demographic data collected by the Rakai Community Cohort project to identify risk factors for infection. Cumulatively, our project aims to investigate rodent, livestock and human samples to build a comprehensive understanding of disease circulation in Uganda. These collaborative projects will continue into next fiscal year and these data will support Ugandan public health efforts to mitigate these public health burdens. As part of our focus on training, during this fiscal year, we have had a post-baccalaureate trainee at the laboratory who has worked to establish the serological assays and has begun using these assays for the human samples. We have also hired a local laboratory manager who will be responsible for ensuring successful operation of the laboratory. We continue to advance our molecular and serological assays that will be deployed to Uganda as soon as the lab space at UVRI is available and functional (Lombe et al., Sci Rep 2021). We have developed multiplex qRT-PCR assays for the screening of tick, mosquito, rodent and livestock samples for pathogens of interest along with internal housekeeping genes for internal controls (Hawman et al., unpublished). We have also developed serological assays to measure antibody responses to various pathogens that will be utilized in Uganda (Lombe et al., Sci Rep 2021; Hawman et al., unpublished). At RML we continue to advance vaccine platforms for CCHFV (Hawman et al., Nat Microbiol 2021; Leventhal et al., eBioMed 2022) and other pathogens endemic in these regions. We have developed an immunocompetent mouse model for CCHFV (Hawman et al., eLife 2021) and are currently using this mouse model along with the established non-human primate model to evaluate countermeasures for CCHFV.