TY - JOUR AU - Hughes, Holly AU - Velez, Jason AU - Davis, Emily AU - Laven, Janeen AU - Gould, Carolyn AU - Panella, Amanda AU - Lambert, Amy AU - Staples, J. Erin AU - Brault, Aaron T1 - Fatal Human Infection with Evidence of Intrahost Variation of Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus, Alabama, USA, 2019 T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2021 VL - 27 IS - 7 SP - 1886 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) is an arbovirus in the family Togaviridae, genus Alphavirus, found in North America and associated with freshwater/hardwood swamps in the Atlantic, Gulf Coast, and Great Lakes regions. EEEV disease in humans is rare but causes substantial illness and death. To investigate the molecular epidemiology and microevolution of EEEV from a fatal case in Alabama, USA, in 2019, we used next-generation sequencing of serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Phylogenetic inference indicated that the infecting strain may be closely related to isolates from Florida detected during 2010–2014, suggesting potential seeding from Florida. EEEV detected in serum displayed a higher degree of variability with more single-nucleotide variants than that detected in the CSF. These data refine our knowledge of EEEV molecular epidemiologic dynamics in the Gulf Coast region and demonstrate potential quasispecies bottlenecking within the central nervous system of a human host. KW - Eastern equine encephalitis virus KW - immunosuppression KW - rituximab KW - quasispecies KW - SNV KW - intrahost variation KW - viruses KW - Alabama KW - USA KW - vector-borne infections KW - zoonoses DO - 10.3201/eid2707.210315 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/7/21-0315_article ER - End of Reference