title: Isolation of infectious Zika virus from saliva and prolonged viral RNA shedding in a traveller returning from the Dominican Republic to Italy, January 2016.
abstract: We report the isolation of infectious Zika virus (ZIKV) in cell culture from the saliva of a patient who developed a febrile illness after returning from the Dominican Republic to Italy, in January 2016. The patient had prolonged shedding of viral RNA in saliva and urine, at higher load than in blood, for up to 29 days after symptom onset. Sequencing of ZIKV genome showed relatedness with strains from Latin America.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Barzon
authors.forename: Monia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pacenti
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Berto
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sinigaglia
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Franchin
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lavezzo
authors.forename: Pierluigi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brugnaro
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Palù
mesh_terms: D004293:Dominican Republic; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012463:Saliva / Q000821:virology*; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA; D014195:Travel; D017201:Virus Shedding; D055815:Young Adult; D000071244:Zika Virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D000071243:Zika Virus Infection / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral
keywords: Zika virus; diagnosis; genome sequencing; saliva; transmission; virus isolation