Jpn. J. Infect. Dis., 58, 98-100, 2005
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Short communication
An Outbreak of Measles Virus Infection due
to a Genotype D9 at a Junior High School in Yamagata, Japan in
2004
Katsumi Mizuta*, Chieko Abiko, Toshio Murata, Keiko Yamada1, Tadayuki Ahiko1,
Michiyo Sakamoto2, Shuji Tsuchida3, Yoko@Matsuzaki4,
Seiji Hongo4, Tomimasa Sunagawa5 and Katsuhiro Kudo
Department of Microbiology, Yamagata Prefectural Institute
of Public Health and 1Murayama
Public Health Center, Yamagata 990-0031,
2Department of Pediatrics, Yamagata
City Hospital Saiseikan, Yamagata 990-8533, 3Tsuchida
Pediatric Clinic, Yamagata 990-0811, 4Department
of Bacteriology, Yamagata University School of Medicine, Yamagata
990-9585 and 5Infectious Disease
Surveillance Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases,
Tokyo 162-8640, Japan
(Received October 14, 2004. Accepted November 29, 2004)
*Corresponding author: Mailing address: Department of Microbiology,
Yamagata Prefectural Institute of Public Health, Tokamachi 1-6-6,
Yamagata 990-0031, Japan. Tel: +81-23-627-1109, Fax: +81-23-641-7486,
E-mail: mizutak@pref.yamagata.jp
SUMMARY: We investigated a measles virus (MV) outbreak
that occurred at a junior high school in Yamagata, Japan between
January and February, 2004. We received throat swab specimens
from three patients at this school and carried out virus isolation
with Vero/hSLAM cells and virus genome detection by reverse-transcription
polymerase chain reaction. As a result, we isolated the virus
from one patient and succeeded in amplifying the@MV genome from
the others. Further sequence analysis of the N gene revealed that
these viruses were completely identical, and that their genotype
could be characterized as type D9, which has not been reported
in Japan previously. We also identified D9 viruses in two students
at other junior high schools in Yamagata. These results suggested
that D9 strains were imported from a region outside Japan. The
genotypes of MVs found in Yamagata have changed in recent years,
with D5 predominating in 2001 and H1 predominating in 2002 and
2003 as reported as national surveillance data. Therefore, we
should monitor carefully to be sure that D9 strains do not become
the next predominant virus.@The more the number of measles cases
decrease, the more important become the roles of public health
laboratories, which genotype MVs and monitor their circulation
and transmission pathways.
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