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Toscana virus causing severe meningoencephalitis in an elderly traveller

¹ Department of Neurology, Kliniken der Stadt Köln, Krankenhaus Merheim, Cologne, Germany
² Bernhard Nocht Institute For Tropical Medicine, Department of Virology, Hamburg, Germany
³ University of Siena, Department of Molecular Biology, Microbiology Section, Laboratory of Virology, Siena, Italy

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Jens Kuhn
Department of Neurology, Kliniken der Stadt Köln, Krankenhaus Merheim, Ostmerheimerstrasse 200, 51109 Cologne, Germany; Kuhnj@kliniken-koeln.de; JKuhn11@aol.com

Keywords: toscana virus; meningoencephalitis

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Toscana virus (TOSV) is classified in the sandfly fever virus group of arboviruses (family Bunyaviridae, genus Phlebovirus) along with Sicilian (SFSV) and Neapolitan (SFNV) sandfly fever virus. SFSV and SFNV cause a transient febrile illness, whereas TOSV also causes mild acute aseptic meningitis. In endemic regions TOSV has been identified as an important cause of viral aseptic meningitis among the indigenous population. TOSV is transmitted by the sandfly species Phlebotomus perniciosus and Phlebotomus perfiliewi. Circulation of TOSV follows the distribution of its vectors—that is, the Mediterranean, Middle East, Western Asia, and North Africa—and the disease coincides with the seasonal life cycle of insect vectors.^1,3 Laboratory confirmation of clinically suspected cases can be carried out by detection of anti-TOSV IgG or IgM antibodies in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) using different techniques. Direct detection of virus is possible by cell culture or reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) . . . [Full text of this article]

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