Serious Invasive Saffold Virus Infections in Children, 2009

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1801.110725 Suggested citation for this article: Nielsen ACY, Böttiger B, Banner J, Hoffmann T, Nielsen LP. Serious invasive Saffold virus infections in children, 2009. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2012 Jan [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1801.110725

Serious Invasive Saffold Virus Infections in Children, 2009

Alex Christian Yde Nielsen, Blenda Böttiger, Jytte Banner, Thomas Hoffmann, and Lars Peter Nielsen
Author affiliations: University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark (A.C.Y. Nielsen); Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark (A.C.Y. Nielsen, B. Böttiger, L.P. Nielsen); University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark (J. Banner); and Hvidovre Hospital, Copenhagen (T. Hoffmann)
The first human virus in the genus Cardiovirus was described in 2007 and named Saffold virus (SAFV). Cardioviruses can cause severe infections of the myocardium and central nervous system in animals, but SAFV has not yet been convincingly associated with disease in humans. To study a possible association between SAFV and infections in the human central nervous system, we designed a real-time PCR for SAFV and tested cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from children <4 years of age. SAFV was detected in 2 children: in the CSF and a fecal sample from 1 child with monosymptomatic ataxia caused by cerebellitis and in the CSF, blood, and myocardium of another child, who died suddenly with no history of illness. Virus from each child was sequenced and shown to be SAFV type 2. These findings demonstrate that SAFV can cause serious invasive infection in children.

Molecular biology has revolutionized the diagnostics of infectious diseases through the introduction of more sensitive and specific diagnostic tests. Despite these advances, the etiologic agents of many apparent infections are still unidentified. For example, the etiologic agent is unknown for many cases of apparent pneumonia (1); in a study conducted in California, USA, despite extensive testing and evaluation, an underlying cause of encephalitis was unidentified for 207 (62%) of 334 patients (2).

full-text:
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