title: Increased circulation of hepatitis A virus genotype IIIA over the last decade in St Petersburg, Russia.
abstract: The current study, covering the period 2004-2009, is a part of long-term monitoring for hepatitis A virus (HAV) strains circulating in St Petersburg, Russia. The HAV RNA was isolated directly from the sera of hepatitis A patients and RT-PCR was carried out using primer pairs for VP1/2A and VP1 genomic regions. PCR products were sequenced and 324 nucleotides from VP1/2A and 332 from the VP1 region were used for phylogenetic analysis. The results show that the IA subtype was the most common circulating subtype during the follow-up period, as found in the previous study: almost 90% of the isolated HAV strains belonged to the IA subtype. The large hepatitis A food-borne outbreak in St Petersburg in 2005 was caused by HAV IA. However, the proportion of HAV isolates belonging to subtype IIIA significantly increased in the period 2001-2009 (7.9%) compared to the period 1997-2000 (none found). The subtype IIIA was first found in St Petersburg in 2001 among a group of intravenous drug users. The increase in its circulation during the decade suggests that this previously unusual genotype has been permanently introduced into the general population of St Petersburg. These results indicate the usefulness of molecular epidemiological methods for studying changes in the circulation of HAV strains.
authors.affiliation: Pasteur Institute, St Petersburg, Russia.
authors.forename: Sergey
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mukomolov
authors.forename: Mia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kontio
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zheleznova
authors.forename: Sari
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jokinen
authors.forename: Eugenia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sinayskaya
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stalevskaya
authors.forename: Irja
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Davidkin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006506:Hepatitis A / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D017957:Hepatitis A Virus, Human / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012426:Russia / Q000453:epidemiology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D044967:Serum / Q000821:virology; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral; C096539:VP1 protein, hepatitis A virus; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins