A sero-epidemiologic survey on arbovirus in Wuvulu Island.

The authors present here the results of a serological survey on arbovirus infections, which was conducted on 116 out of 505 inhibitants of Wuvulu island, the westernmost island of the Bismarck archipelago, located 260 km north of Wewak, Papua-New Guinea. The islanders are divided in two communities of unequal size: the Wuvulian themselves, who are Micronesians, and the coconut workers who are Melanesians coming from the Sepik district. In addition to the presence of a group A virus, this survey shows a recent infection in the Melanesians by Dengue type 2 virus, probably during the 1971-72 epidemic. The virus did not reach Wuvulu island, as shown by negative results observed in the micronesian sera. A better knowledge of the potential dengue mosquito vectors would be useful in order to define the risk of an eventual introduction of the virus on the remote island.