Serological evaluation of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in humans with high-risk professions living in enzootic regions of Isfahan province of Iran and genetic analysis of circulating strains.
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a zoonotic viral disease that is asymptomatic in infected livestock, but causes a serious threat to humans with a mortality rate up to 50%. Although the CCHF virus (CCHFV) is often transmitted by ticks, livestock-to-human and human-to-human transmission also occurs. In the current study, we focused on CCHF in the province of Isfahan, located in the center of Iran and deemed to be the second most infected province. Human and livestock sera and resident ticks in the livestock are collected from different regions of the province and analyzed with specific IgG ELISA and RT-PCR tests. Overall, 12% and 12.7% of studied human and livestock populations were IgG positive, respectively. The genome of CCHFV was detected in 9% of ticks resident in livestock involved in this survey. The CCHFV isolates from infected ticks were genetically examined. Nucleotide sequence of the S-segment revealed that the different isolates were closely related to each other, with nucleotide sequence identities higher than 98%. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that a variant isolate clustered with the Iraq strain. This high proportion of IgG-positive sera and nearly high proportion of infected ticks increases the risk of CCHF outbreaks in the province and probably posits a great danger to other provinces.
Arboviruses and Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers Laboratory (National Ref. Lab), Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran. sadeghchinikar@yahoo.com
Sadegh
S
Chinikar
Seyed M
SM
Ghiasi
Saeed
S
Naddaf
Norair
N
Piazak
Maryam
M
Moradi
Mohammad R
MR
Razavi
Neda
N
Afzali
Ali
A
Haeri
Kamyar
K
Mostafavizadeh
Behrouz
B
Ataei
Mohammad
M
Khalilifard-Brojeni
Sayed M
SM
Husseini
Michele
M
Bouloy
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D001096:Arachnid Vectors / Q000821:virology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015511:Goat Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology; D006041:Goats; D003225:Hemorrhagic Fever Virus, Crimean-Congo / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D006479:Hemorrhagic Fever, Crimean / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D058751:Livestock; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D012756:Sheep; D012757:Sheep Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013987:Ticks / Q000821:virology*; D055815:Young Adult; D015047:Zoonoses
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D012367:RNA, Viral