Isolation of enterovirus 70 (EV70) from patients with acute haemorrhagic conjunctivitis in two areas of Saudi Arabia.
This is the first epidemic of acute haemorrhagic conjunctivitis (AHC) reported from Saudi Arabia in which enterovirus 70 (EV70) was implicated as aetiological agent. EV70 was isolated from 5 of 29 conjunctival scrapings from patients with AHC. Two human diploid cell lines, human skin fibroblast (HSF) and human embryonic lung fibroblast (MRC-5), were quite sensitive for the isolation of this virus. The relatively high isolation rate could also be attributed to the timing of collection of specimens and perhaps to the fact that conjunctival scrapings contained more virus particles than did eye swabs.
Ramia
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S
Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Arif
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M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003228:Conjunctiva / Q000382:microbiology; D003232:Conjunctivitis, Acute Hemorrhagic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004770:Enterovirus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology