South-east Asian Zika virus strain linked to cluster of cases in Singapore, August 2016

Abstract

Zika virus (ZIKV) is an ongoing global public health emergency with 70 countries and territories reporting evidence of ZIKV transmission since 2015. On 27 August 2016, Singapore reported its first case of local ZIKV transmission and identified an ongoing cluster. Here, we report the genome sequences of ZIKV strains from two cases and find through phylogenetic analysis that these strains form an earlier branch distinct from the recent large outbreak in the Americas.