Vector borne infections in Bulgaria

Joint Event on 11^th International Virology Summit & 7^th World Congress on Control and Prevention of HIV/AIDS, STDs & STIs

July 01-02, 2019 Valencia, Spain

Iva Christova

National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Bulgaria

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J AIDS Clin Res

Abstract :

Located in Southeastern Europe, Bulgaria is an endemic country for Lyme borreliosis and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) and is affected by West Nile virus (WNV). In addition, sporadic cases of Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) have been also reported. About 500 cases of Lyme borreliosis are detected annually in Bulgaria. Two peaks in the seasonal distribution of cases and more frequent presentation of neuroborreliosis than of Lyme arthritis appear to be characteristics of Lyme borreliosis in the country. With sporadic cases or small outbreaks, CCHF appeared every year. More than 1600 CCHF cases were officially recorded since 1952. Genetic investigations showed that CCHF virus strains causing disease in the country belong to lineage Europe 1. However, two CCHF virus lineages, Europe 1 and Europe 2, are present in ticks in Bulgaria. CCHF seroprevalence among healthy population is 3.7%. In 2018, number of detected WNV human cases in Bulgaria exceeded the total number in the previous seven years, following the same trend in the other affected EU countries. WNV lineage 2 was confirmed as a cause of the human cases. Overall WNV seroprevalence in human population in the country is 1.5%. Tick-borne encephalitis is very unusual. Only a few cases of TBE have been detected. Overall seroprevalence of 0.6% for TBE virus was found in humans.

Recent Publications

1. Christova I, Trifonova I, Panayotova E, Dimitrov H and Gladnishka (2019) Molecular detection identification of Puumala orthohantavirus in Bulgaria. Infect. Genet. Evol. 70:42-44.

2. Christova I, Panayotova E, Groschup M, Trifonova I, Tchakarova S and Andrada Sas M (2018) High seroprevalence for Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus in ruminants in the absence of reported human cases in many regions of Bulgaria. Exp. Appl. Acarol. 75(2):227-234.

3. Cutler S, Rudenko N, Golovchenko M, Cramaro W, Kirpach J, Savic S, Christova I and Amaro A (2017) Diagnosing borreliosis. Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Dis. 17(1):2-11.

4. Silaghi C, Santos A, Gomes J, Christova I, Matei I, Walder G, Domingos A, Bell-Sakayi L, Sprong H, von Loewenich F, Oteo J, de la Fuente J and Stephen Dumler J (2017) Guidelines for the direct detection of Anaplasma spp. in diagnosis and epidemiological studies. Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Dis. 17(1): 12-22.

5. Christova I, Pishmisheva M, Trifonova I, Vatev N, Stoycheva M, Tiholova M, Igova D, Baev M, Karagyaurova R and Prokopova U (2017) Clinical aspects of hantavirus infections in Bulgaria. Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. 129(15- 16):572-578.

Biography :

Iva Christova is a Professor of Microbiology at the National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases (NCIPD), Sofia, Bulgaria. She is the Deputy Director of NCIPD and Head of National reference vector-borne pathogens laboratory. She published more than 65 papers in reputed journals. Her research interest is focused on ecology, epidemiology, laboratory diagnosis and clinical manifestations of tick-borne and mosquito-borne pathogens. For her outstanding research, she was awarded Morrison Rogosa Award for 2003 from American Society for Microbiology and numerous Bulgarian awards, e.g. award for the most successful young scientist, award for the best research work and award for contribution in medicine. Her area of research interest includes vector-borne.

E-mail: pathogens.iva_christova@ncipd.org