Evidence of dengue transmission and a diverse Aedes mosquito virome on the Congo's Angola border.

Authors

Wenqiao He, Thierry Bobanga, Anne Piantadosi, Zachary R Popkin-Hall, Fabien Vulu, Matthew H Collins, Melchior M Kashamuka, Antoinette K Tshefu, Jonathan J Juliano, Jonathan B Parr

Published in

Nature communications. Volume 17. Issue 1. Aug 10, 2026. Epub Aug 10, 2026.

Abstract

Aedes mosquitoes are widely distributed across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and are major vectors of dengue (DENV), Zika, chikungunya (CHIKV), and yellow fever (YFV) viruses. While the high burden of malaria in the DRC receives considerable attention, arboviruses remain understudied. In the setting of recent CHIKV and YFV outbreaks in southwestern DRC, we collect Aedes mosquitoes in three areas of Kimpese, DRC, near the Angola border, to investigate their virome. Metagenomic and targeted sequencing of eight randomly selected field mosquito pools, comprising 155 mosquitoes from three collection sites, confirm high-confidence DENV reads and human blood meals in six (75%) and eight (100%) pools, respectively. We find diverse mosquito viromes including other known and putative human and animal viruses. Our findings provide strong evidence of endemic DENV transmission along the DRC-Angola border and illustrate the potential of wild-caught mosquitoes for xenosurveillance of emerging pathogens.

PMID:
42706263
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 08 Sep 2026.

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