Isolement de 96 souches de virus dengue 2 à partir de moustiques capturés en cote-d'ivoire et Haute-Volta

Summary The authors give some historical data and the geographical distribution of dengue fever in Africa. They describe circumstances in which they isolated 96 strains of dengue 2 virus from wild mosquitoes collected in Ivory Coast and Upper Volta, during the dry or semi-humid savanna from May to November, 1980. Aedes luteocephalus and Aedes furcifer/taylori were the two main species from which the virus was isolated by the classical inoculation technique in newborn mice. Identification was carried out by haemagglutination inhibition and complement fixation tests, and further characterization was performed by the immunofluorescence test with monoclonal specific antibodies, at the WHO Collaborating Center for Arboviruses Reference and Research in Dakar. Epidemiological serosurveys carried out in Ivory Coast after the finding of the epizootic showed the absence of human infection. Possible animal reservoirs, such as monkeys, have not yet been studied. The isolation of virus from one pool of male mosquitoes, A. furcifer/taylori , could at least partially explain the maintenance of the virus in wilderness areas.