Greek measles epidemic strain, 2005-2006.
The purpose of this work was the molecular study of the virus strain that caused the last measles outbreak in Greece. Twenty-four saliva specimens were obtained from selected patients serologically confirmed as measles cases between December 2005 and March 2006. Measles virus (MV) detection was performed by a nested RT-PCR. The 447-bp segment of the N gene of these MV strains was used for genotyping. The N gene sequences of the Greek MV strains were identical to each other, therefore a phylogenetic tree was constructed using one representative MV (ThesGRE/06). Our data show that the MV strain which caused the 2005-2006 outbreak in Greece belongs to genotype D6, and differs by 0.68% from the New Jersey D6 strain and by 5.5% from the MV vaccine strain Edmonston B (U03656) belonging to genotype A.
Gioula
G
G
B' Microbiology Department, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. ggioula@med.auth.gr
Papa
A
A
Exindari
M
M
Melidou
A
A
Chatzidimitriou
D
D
Karabaxoglou
D
D
Antoniadis
A
A
Kyriazopoulou
V
V
D000328:Adult; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006115:Greece / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008457:Measles / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D008459:Measles virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D012367:RNA, Viral