ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 10 June 2022 doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.888195 Edited by: Mattia Calzolari, Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Lombardy and Emilia Romagna (IZSLER), Italy Reviewed by: Giulietta Venturi, National Institute of Health (ISS), Italy David A. Forero-Peña, Biomedical Research and Therapeutic Vaccines Institute, Venezuela *Correspondence: Nivedita Gupta drguptanivedita@gmail.com † These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship Specialty section: This article was submitted to Infectious Agents and Disease, a section of the journal Frontiers in Microbiology Received: 02 March 2022 Accepted: 02 May 2022 Published: 10 June 2022 Citation: Yadav PD, Kaur H, Gupta N, Sahay RR, Sapkal GN, Shete AM, Deshpande GR, Mohandas S, Majumdar T, Patil S, Pandit P, Kumar A, Nyayanit DA, Sreelatha KH, Manjusree S, Sami H, Khan HM, Malhotra A, Dhingra K, Gadepalli R, Sudha Rani V, Singh MK, Joshi Y, Dudhmal M, Duggal N, Chabbra M, Dar L, Gawande P, Yemul J, Kalele K, Arjun R, Nagamani K, Borkakoty B, Sahoo G, Praharaj I, Dutta S, Barde P, Jaryal SC and Rawat V (2022) Zika a Vector Borne Disease Detected in Newer States of India Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic. Front. Microbiol. 13:888195. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.888195 Zika a Vector Borne Disease Detected in Newer States of India Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic Pragya D. Yadav 1† , Harmanmeet Kaur 2† , Nivedita Gupta 2 * , Rima R. Sahay 1 , Gajanan N. Sapkal 1 , Anita M. Shete 1 , Gururaj R. Deshpande 1 , Sreelekshmy Mohandas 1 , Triparna Majumdar 1 , Savita Patil 1 , Priyanka Pandit 1 , Abhinendra Kumar 1 , Dimpal A. Nyayanit 1 , K. H. Sreelatha 3 , S. Manjusree 3 , Hiba Sami 4 , Haris Mazoor Khan 4 , Anuradha Malhotra 5 , Kanwardeep Dhingra 5 , Ravisekhar Gadepalli 6 , V. Sudha Rani 7 , Manoj Kumar Singh 8 , Yash Joshi 1 , Manisha Dudhmal 1 , Nandini Duggal 9 , Mala Chabbra 9 , Lalit Dar 10 , Pranita Gawande 1 , Jyoti Yemul 1 , Kaumudi Kalele 1 , Rajalakshmi Arjun 11 , K. Nagamani 12 , Biswa Borkakoty 13 , Ganesh Sahoo 14 , Ira Praharaj 15 , Shanta Dutta 16 , Pradip Barde 17 , S. C. Jaryal 18 and Vinita Rawat 19 1 Indian Council of Medical Research, National Institute of Virology, Pune, India, 2 Indian Council of Medical Research, V. Ramalingaswami Bhawan, New Delhi, India, 3 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, India, 4 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh, India, 5 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, Government Medical College, Amritsar, India, 6 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, India, 7 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, Osmania Medical College Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India, 8 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, India, 9 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences & Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi, India, 10 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, 11 Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thiruvananthapuram, India, 12 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, Gandhi Medical College, Secunderabad, India, 13 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, ICMR-Regional Medical Research Centre, Dibrugarh, India, 14 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, ICMR-Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India, 15 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, ICMR-Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar, India, 16 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, India, 17 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, ICMR-National Institute of Research in Tribal Health, Jabalpur, India, 18 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Tanda, India, 19 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, Government Medical College, Haldwani, India Background: During the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, outbreaks of Zika were reported from Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra, India in 2021. The Dengue and Chikungunya negative samples were retrospectively screened to determine the presence of the Zika virus from different geographical regions of India. Methods: During May to October 2021, the clinical samples of 1475 patients, across 13 states and a union territory of India were screened and re-tested for Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika by CDC Trioplex Real time RT-PCR. The Zika rRTPCR positive samples were further screened with anti-Zika IgM and Plaque Reduction Neutralization Test. Next generation sequencing was used for further molecular characterization. Results: The positivity was observed for Zika (67), Dengue (121), and Chikungunya (10) amongst screened cases. The co-infections of Dengue/Chikungunya, Dengue/Zika, and Dengue/Chikungunya/Zika were also observed. All Zika cases were symptomatic with fever (84%) and rash (78%) as major presenting symptoms. Of them, four patients had respiratory distress, one presented with seizures, and one with suspected microcephaly at birth. The Asian Lineage of Zika and all four serotypes of Dengue were found in circulation. Frontiers in Microbiology | www.frontiersin.org 1 June 2022 | Volume 13 | Article 888195