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. 2021 Dec 22;21(1):495.
doi: 10.1186/s12883-021-02528-7.

Toscana virus encephalitis in Southwest Germany: a retrospective study

R Dersch  1 , A Sophocleous  2 , D Cadar  3 , P Emmerich  3 , J Schmidt-Chanasit  3   4 , S Rauer  2
Affiliations

Toscana virus encephalitis in Southwest Germany: a retrospective study

R Dersch et al. BMC Neurol. .

Abstract

Background: Toscana virus (TOSV) is an arthropod-borne virus transmitted by phlebotomine sandflies (Phlebotomus sp.) widespread throughout the Mediterranean having the potential to cause meningoencephalitis in humans. In Germany, the vectors of TOSV are introduced recently and become endemic especially in Southwestern Germany. As TOSV is not investigated regularly in patients with meningoencephalitis, cases of TOSV-neuroinvasive disease may remain mostly undetected.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study on patients with meningoencephalitis without identification of a causal pathogen from 2006 to 2016. Serologic assessment for anti-TOSV-IgG and IgM was performed on serum and CSF. Demographic, clinical and CSF data from TOSV-positive patients were compared to a cohort of patients with meningoencephalitis due to enterovirus. Informed consent was obtained from all included patients.

Results: We found 138 patients with meningoencephalitis without identified causal pathogen. From 98 of these patients CSF and serum was available for further testing. Additionally, we included 27 patients with meningoencephalitis due to enterovirus. We identified two patients with serological confirmed TOSV-neuroinvasive disease (TOSV-IgM and IgG positive, 2%) and two patients with possible TOSV-neuroinvasive disease (isolated TOSV-IgM positive, 2%). Overall, TOSV-neuroinvasive was detected in 4% of our cases with suspected viral meningoencephalitis. None of them had a history of recent travel to an endemic area.

Conclusions: We found cases of TOSV-neuroinvasive disease in our German cohort of patients with meningoencephalitis. As no recent history of travel to an endemic area was reported, it remains probable that these cases resemble autochthonous infections, albeit we cannot draw conclusions regarding the origin of the respective vectors. TOSV could be considered in patients with meningoencephalitis in Germany.

Keywords: Emerging viruses; Encephalitis; Meningitis; Neuroinfectious diseases; Sandfly fever; Toscana virus.

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Conflict of interest statement

RD reports lecture fees from Roche and Alexion and travel grants by Biogen.

AS declares no conflict of interest.

DC declares no conflict of interest.

PE declares no conflict of interest.

JSC declares no conflict of interest.

SR reports consulting and lecture fees, grant and research support from Bayer Vital GmbH, Biogen, Celgene, Merck Serono, Novartis, Sanofi- Aventis, Genzyme, Roche and Teva; founding executive board member of ravo Diagnostika GmbH Freiburg.

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