Borges Vítor, Isidro Joana, Trovão Nídia Sequeira, Duarte Sílvia, Cortes-Martins Helena, Martiniano Hugo, Gordo Isabel, Leite Ricardo, Vieira Luís, Guiomar Raquel, Gomes João Paulo
Bioinformatics Unit, Department of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA), Lisbon, Portugal.
Division of International Epidemiology and Population Studies, Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD USA.
Commun Med (Lond). 2022 Jan 28;2:10. doi: 10.1038/s43856-022-00072-0. eCollection 2022.
Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal was rapidly implemented by the National Institute of Health in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, in collaboration with more than 50 laboratories distributed nationwide.
By applying recent phylodynamic models that allow integration of individual-based travel history, we reconstructed and characterized the spatio-temporal dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 introductions and early dissemination in Portugal.
We detected at least 277 independent SARS-CoV-2 introductions, mostly from European countries (namely the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland), which were consistent with the countries with the highest connectivity with Portugal. Although most introductions were estimated to have occurred during early March 2020, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 was silently circulating in Portugal throughout February, before the first cases were confirmed.
Here we conclude that the earlier implementation of measures could have minimized the number of introductions and subsequent virus expansion in Portugal. This study lays the foundation for genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal, and highlights the need for systematic and geographically-representative genomic surveillance.
在新冠疫情早期，葡萄牙国家卫生研究院与全国50多个实验室合作，迅速开展了对严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）的基因组监测。
通过应用允许整合基于个体的旅行史的近期系统发育动力学模型，我们重建并描述了SARS-CoV-2传入葡萄牙及早期传播的时空动态。
我们检测到至少277次独立的SARS-CoV-2传入，大部分来自欧洲国家（即英国、西班牙、法国、意大利和瑞士），这与与葡萄牙联系最紧密的国家情况相符。尽管大多数传入估计发生在2020年3月初，但很可能在首例病例确诊之前，SARS-CoV-2已于2月在葡萄牙悄然传播。
我们在此得出结论，更早实施措施本可将葡萄牙的传入数量及随后的病毒传播范围降至最低。本研究为葡萄牙SARS-CoV-2的基因组流行病学奠定了基础，并强调了进行系统的、具有地理代表性的基因组监测的必要性。
