Isabelle Schuffenecker, Isabelle Iteman, Alain Michault, Séverine Murri, Lionel Frangeul, Marie-Christine Vaney, Rachel Lavenir, Nathalie Pardigon, Jean-Marc Reynes, François Pettinelli, Leon Biscornet, Laure Diancourt, Stéphanie Michel, Stéphane Duquerroy, Ghislaine Guigon, Marie-Pascale Frenkiel, Anne-Claire Bréhin, Nadège Cubito, Philippe Desprès, Frank Kunst, Félix A Rey, Hervé Zeller, Sylvain Brisse
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...
July 2006: PLoS Medicine