ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2024
Metagenomic next generation sequencing of plasma RNA for diagnosis of unexplained, acute febrile illness in Uganda.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Francisella spp. as an overlooked cause of acute undifferentiated febrile illness in Colombia? Unexpected evidence from febrile patients negative for other common and neglected etiologies in Villeta municipality.Tropical medicine and health · 2026Article
- Article
- Antibody-mediated control of anellovirus infection: evidence from people who inject drugs.Journal of virology · 2025Article
- Rickettsioses as Underrecognized Cause of Hospitalization for Febrile Illness, Uganda.Emerging infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Development and performance evaluation of a clinical metagenomics approach for identifying pathogens in the whole blood from patients with undifferentiated fever.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Metagenomic next generation metagenomic sequencing (mNGS) has proven to be a useful tool in the diagnosis and identification of novel human pathogens and pathogens not identified on routine clinical microbiologic tests. In this study, we applied mNGS to characterize plasma RNA isolated from 42 study participants with unexplained acute febrile illness (AFI) admitted to tertiary referral hospitals in Mubende and Arua, Uganda. Study participants were selected based on clinical criteria suggestive of viral infection (i.e., thrombocytopenia, leukopenia). The study population had a median age of 28 years (IQR:24 to 38.5) and median platelet count of 114 x103 cells/mm3 (IQR:66,500 to 189,800). An average of 25 million 100 bp reads were generated per sample. We identified strong signals from diverse virus, bacteria, fungi, or parasites in 10 (23.8%) of the study participants. These included well recognized pathogens like Helicobacter pylori, human herpes virus-8, Plasmodium falciparum, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Rickettsia conorii. We further confirmed Rickettsia conorii infection, the cause of Mediterranean Spotted Fever (MSF), using PCR assays and Sanger sequencing. mNGS was a useful addition for detection of otherwise undetected pathogens and well-recognized non-pathogens. This is the first report to describe the molecular confirmation of a hospitalized case of MSF in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Further studies are needed to determine the utility of mNGS for disease surveillance in similar settings.
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Registered trials
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