title: Human vaccinia-like virus outbreaks in São Paulo and Goiás States, Brazil: virus detection, isolation and identification.
abstract: Since October 2001, the Adolfo Lutz Institute has been receiving vesicular fluids and scab specimens of patients from Paraíba Valley region in the São Paulo and Minas Gerais States and from São Patricio Valley, in the Goiás State. Epidemiological data suggested that the outbreaks were caused by Cowpox virus or Vaccinia virus. Most of the patients are dairy milkers that had vesiculo-pustular lesions on the hands, arms, forearms, and some of them, on the face. Virus particles with orthopoxvirus morphology were detected by direct electron microscopy (DEM) in samples of 49 (66.21%) patients of a total of 74 analyzed. Viruses were isolated in Vero cell culture and on chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) of embryonated chicken eggs. Among 21 samples submitted to PCR using primers for hemagglutinin (HA) gene, 19 were positive. Restriction digestion with TaqI resulted in four characteristic Vaccinia virus fragments. HA nucleotide sequences showed 99.9% similarity with Cantagalo virus, described as a strain of Vaccinia virus. The only difference observed was the substitution of one nucleotide in the position 616 leading to change in one amino acid of the protein in the position 206. The phylogenetic analysis showed that the isolates clustered together with Cantagalo virus, other Vaccinia strains and Rabbitpox virus.
authors.affiliation: Seção de Microscopia Eletrônica, Laboratório de Biologia Molecular, Instituto Adolfo Lutz, Av. Dr. Arnaldo 355, 01246-902, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Teresa Keico
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Nagasse-Sugahara
authors.forename: Jonas José
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Kisielius
authors.forename: Marli
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ueda-Ito
authors.forename: Suely Pires
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Curti
authors.forename: Cristina Adelaide
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Figueiredo
authors.forename: Aurea Silveira
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.forename: Maysa Madalena J
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Carmen Helena
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.forename: Maria Claudia C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Tiyo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sakurai
authors.forename: Luis Florêncio
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Salles-Gomes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002642:Chick Embryo; D002648:Child; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D049033:Chorioallantoic Membrane; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D005814:Genes, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D014615:Vaccinia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014616:Vaccinia virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014709:Vero Cells