title: Detection and genotyping of rubella virus from exanthematous patients suspected of having measles using reverse transcription-PCR.
abstract: Between July 2012 and March 2013, a total of 133 clinical specimens from 47 patients suspected of having measles were collected for virological surveillance in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Facing the rubella epidemic, the reverse transcription (RT)-PCR protocol for measles virus (MeV) was modified to simultaneously detect rubella virus (RUBV) in these clinical specimens. As a result, 30 specimens from 15 patients were positive for RUBV and 8 specimens from 3 patients were positive for MeV. The RUBV genotype analysis for the samples from 13 patients revealed 12 samples as 2B and 1 sample as 1E. The results provided additional evidence for the difficulty in the diagnosis of exanthematous diseases based on clinical manifestations alone and the necessity of virological diagnosis to maintain the accuracy of case-based surveillance. Furthermore, the results indicated that the modified RT-PCR protocol could be useful as a routine procedure to simultaneously detect MeV and RUBV in clinical specimens of patients suspected of having exanthematous disease caused by these viruses.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, Department of Microbiology and Medical Zoology, Aichi Prefectural Institute of Public Health.
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yasui
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Hirokazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Adachi
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Teruo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamashita
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Minagawa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008457:Measles / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D008459:Measles virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D025202:Molecular Diagnostic Techniques / Q000379:methods; D060885:Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012409:Rubella / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D012412:Rubella virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D055815:Young Adult