Affiliations 

  • 1 1 Department of Science and Technology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
  • 2 4 Shandong Provincial Research Center for Bioinformatic Engineering and Technique, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, China
  • 3 2 State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Department of Viral Encephalitis and Arbovirus, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis, 2019 Jan;19(1):35-44.
PMID: 30207876 DOI: 10.1089/vbz.2018.2291

Abstract

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a representative virus of the JEV serogroup in genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae. JEV is a mosquito-borne virus that causes Japanese encephalitis (JE), one of the most severe viral encephalitis diseases in the world. JEV is divided into five genotypes (G1-G5), and each genotype has its own distribution pattern. However, the distribution of different JEV genotypes has changed markedly in recent years. JEV G1 has replaced G3 as the dominant genotype in the traditional epidemic areas in Asia, while G3 has spread from Asia to Europe and Africa and caused domestic JE cases in Africa. G2 and G5, which were endemic in Malaysia, exhibited great geographical changes as well. G2 migrated southward and led to prevalence of JE in Australia, while G5 emerged in China and South Korea after decades of silence. Along with these changes, JE occurred in some non-traditional epidemic regions as an emerging infectious disease. The regional changes in JEV pose a great threat to human health, leading to huge disease burdens. Therefore, it is of great importance to strengthen the monitoring of JEV as well as virus genotypes, especially in non-traditional epidemic areas.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.