title: Detection of West Nile virus lineage 2 in mosquitoes during a human outbreak in Greece.
abstract: A human outbreak of West Nile virus (WNV) infections occurred in 2010 in central Macedonia, northern Greece. Most cases were observed close to four rivers forming a large Delta, a major Mediterranean wetland. WNV lineage 2 sequences were obtained from two pools of Culex pipiens mosquitoes trapped in sites where encephalitis cases occurred a few days before the trapping. The Greek strain showed the highest homology to Hungarian and South African strains, differing from the Russian WNV lineage 2 strain, which suggests that at least two lineage 2 strains have been introduced and established in Europe, causing severe disease to humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece. annap@med.auth.gr
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Papa
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Xanthopoulou
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gewehr
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mourelatos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003465:Culex / Q000821:virology*; D009033:Culicidae / Q000821:virology; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006115:Greece / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D045483:Rivers; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014901:West Nile Fever / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D014902:West Nile virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D053833:Wetlands