Prevalence And Genetic Diversity Of Coronavirus In Human In Bangladesh

Background: Coronaviruses (CoVs) are the causative agents of significant diseases resulting in a substantial impact on human and animal health. Both SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV originated from an animal reservoir and in recent years has caused a major burden on human health and health infrastructure globally. This study was conducted to detect and molecularly characterize known and novel coronaviruses in humans at high-risk animal-human interfaces in Bangladesh. Methods and materials: From October 2017 to January 2019, we interviewed 862 participants using a questionnaire that examined behavioral risk factors associated with spillover and collected biological specimens from communities in Dhaka, Madaripur, and Dinajpur and one hospital, Faridpur Medical College Hospital, twice (dry and wet season). We enrolled participants from the hospital with symptoms that are associated with Influenza-like illness (ILI), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), encephalitis, or fever of unknown origin (FUO) and from the community, apparently healthy participants who had a history of domestic or wild animal contact. We tested blood, oral and rectal swabs using consensus PCR targeting RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase (rdrp) gene. Positive PCR products were confirmed by sequencing. Results: Overall coronaviruses positive in 13 (95% CI: 0.8–2.5); among them 7 CoV-OC43, 4 CoV-HKU1 and 2 CoV-222E were detected. Coronavirus identified 3 in influenza-like illness (n = 372), 2 in fever of unknown origin (n = 78), 2 in encephalitis (n = 90), and 6 in apparently healthy participants (n = 295). Detecting CoVs was not associated with age or gender of the participants; however, virus detection was associated with samples collected in the dry season (p = <0.001). This study revealed, HCoV-229E and HCoV-HKU1 were circulated in Madaripur and Dhaka, respectively whereas HCoV-OC43 was detected in diverse locations. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that HCoV-229E was closely similar to CoV strains detected in China; HCoV-HKU1 in the USA and Thailand, and HCoV-OC43 in France and China. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the diverse strains of CoVs are circulating in the study areas. Based on our research this is the first report of molecular characterization of coronavirus strains in humans in Bangladesh. Continued viral surveillance is recommended to better understand the CoV viral diversity in Bangladesh and serological assays to determine the spillover events at human-animal interfaces.