Ronan Kelly
Retired 2020
[h=1]Emergence of human West Nile Virus infection in Sri Lanka[/h] Janarthani Lohitharajah[SUP]1[/SUP], Gathsaurie Neelika Malavige[SUP]2[/SUP], Anthony Jin Shun Chua[SUP]3[/SUP], Mah Lee Ng[SUP]3[/SUP], Carukshi Arambepola[SUP]4[/SUP] and Thashi Chang[SUP]5[/SUP][SUP]*[/SUP]
[SUP]2[/SUP]Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka
[SUP]3[/SUP]Department of Microbiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University Health System, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
[SUP]4[/SUP]Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka
[SUP]5[/SUP]Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, 25, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08, Sri Lanka
For all author emails, please log on.
BMC Infectious Diseases 2015, 15:305 doi:10.1186/s12879-015-1040-7
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/15/305
[TABLE="cellpadding: 0, cellspacing: 0"]
[TR]
[TD]Received:[/TD]
[TD]9 April 2015[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Accepted:[/TD]
[TD]17 July 2015[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Published:[/TD]
[TD]31 July 2015[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
? 2015 Lohitharajah et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
[h=3]Abstract[/h] [h=4]Background[/h] West Nile virus (WNV) has emerged as one of the most common causes of epidemic meningoencephalitis worldwide. Most human infections are asymptomatic. However, neuroinvasive disease characterized by meningitis, encephalitis and/or acute flaccid paralysis is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Although outbreaks have been reported in Asia, human WNV infection has not been previously reported in Sri Lanka.
[h=4]Methods[/h] Sera and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from 108 consecutive patients with a clinical diagnosis of encephalitis admitted to two tertiary care hospitals in Colombo, Sri Lanka were screened for WNV IgM antibody using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Positive results were confirmed using plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT). Patient data were obtained from medical records and by interviewing patients and care-givers.
[h=4]Results[/h] Three of the 108 patients had WNV IgM antibody in serum and one had antibody in the CSF. The presence of WNV neutralizing antibodies was confirmed in two of the three patients using PRNT. Two patients had presented with the clinical syndrome of meningoencephalitis while one had presented with encephalitis. One patient had CSF lymphocytic pleocytosis, one had neutrophilic pleocytosis while CSF cell counts were normal in one. CSF protein showed marginal increase in two patients.
[h=4]Conclusions[/h] This is the first report of human WNV infection identified in patients presenting with encephalitis or meningoencephalitis in Sri Lanka. There were no clinical, routine laboratory or radiological features that were distinguishable from other infectious causes of meningoencephalitis.
full paper (open access) available at; http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/15/305
- *Corresponding author: Thashi Chang thashichang@gmail.com
[SUP]2[/SUP]Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka
[SUP]3[/SUP]Department of Microbiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University Health System, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
[SUP]4[/SUP]Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka
[SUP]5[/SUP]Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, 25, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08, Sri Lanka
For all author emails, please log on.
BMC Infectious Diseases 2015, 15:305 doi:10.1186/s12879-015-1040-7
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/15/305
[TABLE="cellpadding: 0, cellspacing: 0"]
[TR]
[TD]Received:[/TD]
[TD]9 April 2015[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Accepted:[/TD]
[TD]17 July 2015[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Published:[/TD]
[TD]31 July 2015[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
? 2015 Lohitharajah et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
[h=3]Abstract[/h] [h=4]Background[/h] West Nile virus (WNV) has emerged as one of the most common causes of epidemic meningoencephalitis worldwide. Most human infections are asymptomatic. However, neuroinvasive disease characterized by meningitis, encephalitis and/or acute flaccid paralysis is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Although outbreaks have been reported in Asia, human WNV infection has not been previously reported in Sri Lanka.
[h=4]Methods[/h] Sera and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from 108 consecutive patients with a clinical diagnosis of encephalitis admitted to two tertiary care hospitals in Colombo, Sri Lanka were screened for WNV IgM antibody using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Positive results were confirmed using plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT). Patient data were obtained from medical records and by interviewing patients and care-givers.
[h=4]Results[/h] Three of the 108 patients had WNV IgM antibody in serum and one had antibody in the CSF. The presence of WNV neutralizing antibodies was confirmed in two of the three patients using PRNT. Two patients had presented with the clinical syndrome of meningoencephalitis while one had presented with encephalitis. One patient had CSF lymphocytic pleocytosis, one had neutrophilic pleocytosis while CSF cell counts were normal in one. CSF protein showed marginal increase in two patients.
[h=4]Conclusions[/h] This is the first report of human WNV infection identified in patients presenting with encephalitis or meningoencephalitis in Sri Lanka. There were no clinical, routine laboratory or radiological features that were distinguishable from other infectious causes of meningoencephalitis.
full paper (open access) available at; http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/15/305