Journal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology
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Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a zoonotic viral disease that is asymptomatic in infected livestock, but a serious threat to humans. Human infections begin with nonspecific febrile symptoms, but progress to a serious hemorrhagic syndrome with a case fatality rate of 2-50%. ⋯ The disease is one of the most widely distributed viral hemorrhagic fevers occurring in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and some parts of Europe. In this study, we have focused on the CCHF situation in Iran and neighboring countries and provide evidence of over 5000 confirmed cases of CCHF in a single period/season.
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Comparative Study
Performance of laboratory diagnostics for the detection of influenza A(H1N1)v virus as correlated with the time after symptom onset and viral load.
To diagnose influenza A(H1N1)v virus infection, accurate and rapid detection are important. However, there is scanty data on the performance of various laboratory diagnostics. ⋯ Although viral shedding is prolonged and of higher titre in influenza A(H1N1)v infection, RAT showed a low sensitivity of 62% among patients presenting < or =3 days after symptom onset. Viral culture showed comparable performance with RT-PCR and with sensitivity better than that documented for seasonal influenza.
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About 8% of human genome is constituted by retroviral sequences. Some of these have been classified as human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), which have been implicated in both health and disease. Recently, indirect evidence for a possible role of retroviral elements in neurological diseases has been provided by several studies. ⋯ Our study about distinct prevalence patterns of HERVs reflects that some HERVs families may be associated with the development of prion diseases, and considered as a candidate marker for the diagnosis of sporadic CJD.