title: Polymerase chain reaction for diagnosis and identification of distinct variants of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus in the United Arab Emirates.
abstract: Viral hemorrhagic fever has re-emerged in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since November 1993. Genomic RNA of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic virus (C-CHFV) was detected by a newly developed, nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in the sera of four (25.0%) of 16 suspected cases of viral hemorrhagic fever. The RT-PCR was based on oligonucleotide primers deducted from the small RNA segment encoding the nucleoprotein of the virus. By comparison with a nucleotide sequence of a C-CHFV isolate from a Chinese sheep, a divergence of 10.0-11.8% was detected in the C-CHFV variants causing the UAE outbreak. In the four positive sera, three phylogenetically distinct C-CHFV variants were amplified and confirmed by direct sequencing of the PCR fragments. These C-CHFV sequences were obtained directly from sera of infected humans without prior propagation in cell culture. The RT-PCR allows rapid detection of genomic C-CHFV RNA in clinical specimens and study of the molecular epidemiology of this infection.
authors.affiliation: Max von Pettenkofer Institute for Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: T F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nsanze
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Longson
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nitschko
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gilch
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shurie
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ameen
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Zahir
authors.forename: U G
authors.initials: UG
authors.lastname: Acharya
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jager
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D016384:Consensus Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000737:chemistry; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D003225:Hemorrhagic Fever Virus, Crimean-Congo / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006479:Hemorrhagic Fever, Crimean / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014479:United Arab Emirates / Q000453:epidemiology; D014709:Vero Cells
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D012367:RNA, Viral