Serological evaluation of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in humans with high-risk professions living in enzootic regions of Isfahan province of Iran and genetic analysis of circulating strains

TY - JOUR

T1 - Serological evaluation of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in humans with high-risk professions living in enzootic regions of Isfahan province of Iran and genetic analysis of circulating strains

AU - Chinikar, Sadegh

AU - Ghiasi, Seyed Mojtaba

AU - Naddaf, Saeed

AU - Piazak, Norair

AU - Moradi, Maryam

AU - Razavi, Mohammad R

AU - Afzali, Neda

AU - Haeri, Ali

AU - Mostafavizadeh, Kamyar

AU - Ataei, Behrouz

AU - Khalilifard-Brojeni, Mohammad

AU - Husseini, Sayed M

AU - Bouloy, Michele

PY - 2012/9/1

Y1 - 2012/9/1

N2 - Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a zoonotic viral disease that is asymptomatic in infected livestock, but causes a serious threat to humans with a mortality rate up to 50%. Although the CCHF virus (CCHFV) is often transmitted by ticks, livestock-to-human and human-to-human transmission also occurs. In the current study, we focused on CCHF in the province of Isfahan, located in the center of Iran and deemed to be the second most infected province. Human and livestock sera and resident ticks in the livestock are collected from different regions of the province and analyzed with specific IgG ELISA and RT-PCR tests. Overall, 12% and 12.7% of studied human and livestock populations were IgG positive, respectively. The genome of CCHFV was detected in 9% of ticks resident in livestock involved in this survey. The CCHFV isolates from infected ticks were genetically examined. Nucleotide sequence of the S-segment revealed that the different isolates were closely related to each other, with nucleotide sequence identities higher than 98%. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that a variant isolate clustered with the Iraq strain. This high proportion of IgG-positive sera and nearly high proportion of infected ticks increases the risk of CCHF outbreaks in the province and probably posits a great danger to other provinces.

AB - Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a zoonotic viral disease that is asymptomatic in infected livestock, but causes a serious threat to humans with a mortality rate up to 50%. Although the CCHF virus (CCHFV) is often transmitted by ticks, livestock-to-human and human-to-human transmission also occurs. In the current study, we focused on CCHF in the province of Isfahan, located in the center of Iran and deemed to be the second most infected province. Human and livestock sera and resident ticks in the livestock are collected from different regions of the province and analyzed with specific IgG ELISA and RT-PCR tests. Overall, 12% and 12.7% of studied human and livestock populations were IgG positive, respectively. The genome of CCHFV was detected in 9% of ticks resident in livestock involved in this survey. The CCHFV isolates from infected ticks were genetically examined. Nucleotide sequence of the S-segment revealed that the different isolates were closely related to each other, with nucleotide sequence identities higher than 98%. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that a variant isolate clustered with the Iraq strain. This high proportion of IgG-positive sera and nearly high proportion of infected ticks increases the risk of CCHF outbreaks in the province and probably posits a great danger to other provinces.

KW - Adult

KW - Aged

KW - Animals

KW - Antibodies, Viral

KW - Arachnid Vectors

KW - Cross-Sectional Studies

KW - Female

KW - Goat Diseases

KW - Goats

KW - Hemorrhagic Fever Virus, Crimean-Congo

KW - Hemorrhagic Fever, Crimean

KW - Humans

KW - Immunoglobulin G

KW - Iran

KW - Livestock

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Questionnaires

KW - RNA, Viral

KW - Sequence Analysis, DNA

KW - Seroepidemiologic Studies

KW - Sheep

KW - Sheep Diseases

KW - Ticks

KW - Young Adult

KW - Zoonoses

U2 - 10.1089/vbz.2011.0634

DO - 10.1089/vbz.2011.0634

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 22217167

SN - 1530-3667

VL - 12

SP - 733

EP - 738

JO - Vector Borne and Zoonotic Diseases

JF - Vector Borne and Zoonotic Diseases

IS - 9

ER -