Isolation of Toscana virus from the cerebrospinal fluid of a man with meningitis in Marseille, France, 2010

Abstract

Toscana virus (TOSV; Bunyaviridae, Phlebovirus) is an emerging arthropod-borne virus transmitted by phlebotomine sandflies. TOSV is a frequent cause of central nervous system infection during the warm season in several countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Here, we report a case of TOSV aseptic meningitis diagnosed in 2012 in Marseille, France. The virus strain was recovered in cell culture from the cerebrospinal fluid. New-generation sequencing based on Ion Torrent technology was used to determine its complete genome sequence. Phylogenetic analysis based on the partial L segment revealed that this isolate belongs to the lineage B together with other French, Spanish, and Moroccan strains. Although several cases of TOSV meningitis are reported in the literature, few of them are diagnosed by RT-PCR combined with virus isolation and further sequence characterization. This case report supports that virus isolation should be attempted whenever possible because this remains the gold standard technique for diagnosis of arthropod-borne viral infections.