No Evidence of Ntwetwe Virus Infections in Children Presenting to Kiboga Hospital, Uganda

Abstract

We investigated whether Ntwetwe virus—a novel orthobunyavirus discovered in a Ugandan girl with a fatal encephalopathy—was a common reason for hospital admission for children to Kiboga hospital, Uganda. A case–control was conducted between September 2019 and September 2020, including cases with severe neurological disease and mild febrile illness, matched to a healthy control without fever. Among 143 subjects, no cases with an acute infection were identified. This result suggests that Ntwetwe virus does not cause a major burden of disease amongst children presenting to Kiboga hospital during the study period.