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Case Reports
. 2017 Apr 6;22(14):30501.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2017.22.14.30501.

Blood donor screening for West Nile virus (WNV) revealed acute Usutu virus (USUV) infection, Germany, September 2016

Daniel Cadar  1   2 , Philipp Maier  3 , Susanne Müller  4 , Julia Kress  4 , Michael Chudy  4 , Alexandra Bialonski  1 , Alexander Schlaphof  1 , Stephanie Jansen  1   2 , Hanna Jöst  1   2 , Egbert Tannich  1 , Stefan Runkel  5 , Walter E Hitzler  5 , Gabriele Hutschenreuter  3 , Martina Wessiepe  3   6 , Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit  1   2   6
Affiliations
Case Reports

Blood donor screening for West Nile virus (WNV) revealed acute Usutu virus (USUV) infection, Germany, September 2016

Daniel Cadar et al. Euro Surveill. .

Abstract

Between 1 June and 31 December 2016, 13,023 blood donations from the University Hospital Aachen in Germany were routinely screened for West Nile virus (WNV) RNA using the cobas TaqScreen WNV Test. On 28 September 2016, one blood donor was tested positive. Subsequent analysis revealed an acute Usutu virus (USUV) infection. During the ongoing USUV epizootics in Germany, blood transfusion services, public health authorities and clinicians should be aware of increased human USUV infections.

Keywords: Blood donor; Germany; PCR, Human infection; Usutu virus; West Nile virus; outbreak.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Bayesian maximum clade credibility tree representing the phylogenetic placement of the human Usutu virus (USUV) strain Aachen compared with all available USUV based on partial NS5 gene nt sequences
Figure 2
Figure 2
Amino acid mutations in the Usutu virus (USUV) Aachen strain: A. schematic representation of the genome organisation of USUV, B. structural location of the USUV non-synonymous mutations in the Aachen strain depicted on the predicted E glycoprotein structure
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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