Isolation and genetic characterization of enterovirus in patients with febrile rash illness.

Wednesday, 28th of October 2015

Isolation and genetic characterization of enterovirus in patients with febrile rash illness.

Ni Z¹ Xiang F¹ Huang H¹ Wang G¹ Li F¹.

 

Abstract

Measles and rubella virus are usually considered as the causative agents in patients with febrile rash illness (FRI). However investigators have identified that enteroviruses are also associated with FRI and the present study was undertaken to investigate this association.

In the study 20 throat swab samples were collected from patients suffering from rash and fever between April and July in 2013. The 20 samples tested negative for measles virus but all were positive when reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was performed using enterovirus universal primers.

Specifically five tested positive for Coxsackie B3 virus (CVB3). The titers of the five CVB3 isolates were 10^6.5 10^6.4 10^7.5 10^6.5 and 10^6.5 tissue culture infectious dose₅₀/100 µl respectively. The partial VP1 sequences of the five CVB3 isolates were identical to each other and were closely associated with the CVB3/MKP and CVB3/Macocy strains which are known to induce myocarditis and neonatal diseases of the central nervous system.

 

In conclusion CVB3 may cause symptoms of fever and rash and should be differentiated from measles rubella and other infectious pathogens. The five CVB3 isolates described in the study were genetically similar to each other and to other local CVB3 strains. The results provide further data on the viral pathogen spectrum associated with FRI.