UK-Brazil Joint Centre for Arbovirus Discovery, Diagnosis, Genomics and Epidemiology (CADDE)

最近，巴西受到意外和爆炸性的昆虫传播病毒(虫媒病毒)流行的影响，最明显的是寨卡病毒、基孔肯雅热病毒、登革热病毒和黄热病病毒。巴西寨卡疫情造成的巨大经济负担，以及该国城市蚊子的广泛存在，突显了对疾病传播的准确预测的迫切需要，特别是在人口稠密的大片地区。我们的英国-巴西伙伴关系(Cadde)将加强和扩大现有的优秀合作，目的是预测和控制未来虫媒病毒在巴西的流行。我们的愿景是使Cadde成为南美卓越的战略研究中心，专注于提供基于基因组、流行病学和地理证据的及时分析，以预测和控制虫媒病毒的传播，无论是现在还是将来。我们的研究问题包括：1)什么虫媒病毒在巴西的人类、蚊子和水库种群中传播？2)虫媒病毒在非流行期在哪里以及如何持续？3)传播中的虫媒病毒及其基因组突变的遗传多样性具有什么生物学和医学意义？4)什么因素控制着将一种新的虫媒病毒引入人类种群转变为大规模流行病的因素；5)我们可以多快地检测和描述这种流行病，以及如何最好地应对？媒介和宿主中的主动病毒监测将与献血者中的血清阳性率调查相结合(以描述病毒基因组学、传播和免疫等特征)。新的便携式基因组测序技术和现代实时流行病学分析将应用于巴西最重要的虫媒病毒。使用可以统一基因组学和流行病学信息的现代技术，Cadde将加强公共卫生行动的证据基础，并加强巴西卫生系统应对新出现的虫媒病毒疾病的能力。我们将通过培训研究科学家和公共卫生人员在现场流行病学、实验室检测、使用便携式基因组技术以及计算和统计方法方面来改变当地的能力。

Recently, Brazil has been affected by unexpected and explosive epidemics of insect-transmitted viruses (arboviruses), most notably Zika, chikungunya, dengue, and yellow fever viruses. The huge economic burden of the Zika epidemic in Brazil and the widespread presence of urban mosquitos in the country highlight an urgent need for accurate predictions of disease spread, particularly in large, densely populated regions. Our UK-Brazil Partnership (CADDE) will enhance and expand an excellent existing collaborations, with the aim of anticipating and controlling future epidemics of arboviruses in Brazil. It is our vision for CADDE to become a strategic centre of excellence for research in South America that focuses on providing timely analysis, based on genomic, epidemiological and geographic evidence, to anticipate and control transmission of arboviruses, today and in the future.. Our research questions include: 1) What arboviruses circulate in human, mosquito and reservoir populations in Brazil? 2) Where and how do arboviruses persist during non-epidemic periods? 3) What are the biological and medical implications of the genetic diversity of circulating arboviruses and of mutations in their genomes? 4) What factors control the transformation of a single introduction of a new arbovirus into human populations into sizeable epidemic, and 5) how quickly can we detect and characterise such epidemics, and how best to respond? Active virus surveillance in vectors and reservoirs will be combined with seroprevalence surveys in blood donors (to characterise features such as virus genomics, transmission, and immunity). Novel portable genome sequencing technologies and modern real-time epidemiological analyses will be applied to the most important arboviruses in Brazil. Using modern techniques that can unify the information from genomics and epidemiology, CADDE will strengthen the evidence base for public health actions, and strengthen the capacity of Brazilian health system to respond to emerging arboviral diseases. We will transform local capacity by training research scientists and public health personnel in field epidemiology, laboratory testing, the use of portable genomic technologies, and computational and statistical methods.