The Laboratory of Arboviruses and Hemorrhagic Viruses (LARBOH) at Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC/Fiocruz) has been dedicated since 1986 to the study of the biology of arboviruses with several lines of research, the main focus being on dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever.

It is a Regional Reference for Arboviruses. It is a member of the Arbovirus Laboratory Network of the Region of the Americas (RELDA) of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Global Yellow Fever Laboratory Network of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Laboratory's topics of interest include the development of new methodologies applied to the diagnosis of arboviruses; epidemiology and molecular characterization of dengue viruses and other arboviruses; investigation of dengue pathogenesis and analysis of its clinical manifestations and their relationship with serotype and genotype; research on flaviviruses and alphaviruses of clinical and epidemiological importance; and virus-vector interaction studies.

LARBOH had pioneering action in several scenarios, including:

- In the isolation of dengue viruses types 1, 2 and 3 (in 1986, 1990 and 2001) in the state of Rio de Janeiro and in the country, and type 4 in the state of Rio de Janeiro in 2010;

- In the use of the RT-PCR method in the diagnosis of suspected cases of yellow fever from blood, fresh and fixed tissues;

- At the meeting, in 2010, of serological evidence of West Nile virus circulation in horses from the Pantanal of Mato Grosso, described for the first time in Brazil.

- In the detection of the Zika virus genome in the amniotic fluid of patients pregnant with babies with microcephaly, this being the first relationship between the Zika virus and microcephaly;

- In the presentation, in 2015, of the idea to the Instituto de Biologia do Paraná, for the development of a molecular test capable of simultaneously detecting the Zika, Dengue and Chikungunya viruses, which in 2017 became a kit and the technology transferred from IBMP to production in Biomanguinhos and distribution to the entire national network of laboratories of the Ministry of Health that performs the diagnosis of Zika, dengue and Chikungunya in the country;

- And in the development, in partnership with the University of Bonn in Germany in 2018, of a real-time PCR that allows to quickly and sensitively differentiate the yellow fever virus between vaccine and wild, until then only possible through the sequencing of the viral genome .

The Laboratory, accredited for the period 2023-2028, was previously called Flavivirus Laboratory.

Head of the Laboratory of Arboviruses and Hemorrhagic Viruses 
Felipe Gomes Naveca (Curriculum lattes) 

Deputy Head of the Arboviruses and Hemorrhagic Viruses Laboratory 
Ana Maria Bishop of Filippis (Curriculum lattes)