Genome microevolution of chikungunya viruses causing the Indian Ocean outbreak.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A chikungunya virus outbreak of unprecedented magnitude is currently ongoing in Indian Ocean territories. In Réunion Island, this alphavirus has already infected about one-third of the human population. The main clinical symptom of the disease is a painful and invalidating poly-arthralgia. Besides the arthralgic form, 123 patients with a confirmed chikungunya infection have developed severe clinical signs, i.e., neurological signs or fulminant hepatitis.

Methods and findings

We report the nearly complete genome sequence of six selected viral isolates (isolated from five sera and one cerebrospinal fluid), along with partial sequences of glycoprotein E1 from a total of 127 patients from Réunion, Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar, and Mayotte islands. Our results ind

SUBMITTER: Schuffenecker I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1463904 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature