Acute haemorrhagic conjunctivitis outbreak in the city of Fortaleza, northeast Brazil.

ABSTRACT:

Background/aim

Between February and May 2003 an epidemic of acute haemorrhagic conjunctivitis affected more than 200 000 people in all five geographic regions of Brazil (north, south, midwestern, southeast, and northeast). The aim was to identify the aetiological agent and to describe clinical aspects of this outbreak in a group of patients treated at the ophthalmology department of the Hospital Walter Cantídio (OD-HWC) at the Universidade Federal do Ceará, in the city of Fortaleza, capital of the state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil.

Methods

Conjunctival swabs were collected from patients who spontaneously went to the laboratory of virology. Specimens were inoculated in HEp-2 and RD cell lines. The viral isolation was confirmed by performing reverse transcriptase polymerase

SUBMITTER: Moura FE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1857380 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature