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Review
. 2014 Jun 17:5:290.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2014.00290. eCollection 2014.

Human to mosquito transmission of dengue viruses

Lauren B Carrington  1 , Cameron P Simmons  2
Affiliations
Review

Human to mosquito transmission of dengue viruses

Lauren B Carrington et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

The successful transmission of dengue virus from a human host to a mosquito vector requires a complex set of factors to align. It is becoming increasingly important to improve our understanding of the parameters that shape the human to mosquito component of the transmission cycle so that vaccines and therapeutic antivirals can be fully evaluated and epidemiological models refined. Here we describe these factors, and discuss the biological and environmental impacts and demographic changes that are influencing these dynamics. Specifically, we examine features of the human infection required for the mosquito to acquire the virus via natural blood feeding, as well as the biological and environmental factors that influence a mosquito's susceptibility to infection, up to the point that they are capable of transmitting the virus to a new host.

Keywords: Aedes aegypti; Aedes albopictus; dengue virus; symptomatic vs. asymptomatic infections; temperature; transmission; viral titer.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Effect of plasma viremia on mosquito susceptibility to infection (32). With an increasing concentration of DENV in the patient’s blood, mosquitoes have a higher probability of being infected, as determined 12 days after mosquitoes imbibed the blood meal. Each data point represents the proportion of DENV-infected mosquitoes after a single blood-feeding episode. Estimated associations and the 95% confidence intervals are shown in the blue lines and gray shading, respectively. Image reproduced with permission from the authors.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Duration of human DENV infectiousness to Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. A person can become infectious to mosquitoes up to 1.5 days before the onset of their fever and associated symptoms, and remain infectious until the end of their febrile period, and sometimes shortly after. Indicated above the thick black line are the colored arrows showing the period of human infectiousness for each serotype, according to Nguyen et al. (32). DENV-1 (shown in blue) and DENV-2 (red) may be infectious to mosquitoes for up to 2 days after the patient becomes afebrile, however DENV-3 (green) and DENV-4 (yellow) appear to be less infectious at these later stages of illness, due to lower plasma viremia in the patient. A single study (37), found that six dengue patients were infectious to mosquitoes from 0.25 days, up to a maximum of 1.5 days, before they had any sign of symptoms (indicated by the pale gray arrow). The serotype of virus used in Siler et al.’s study is unknown. Below the black line is the relative alignment of the course of dengue illness. IIP = intrinsic incubation period.
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