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Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 81(5), 2009, pp. 865-868
doi:10.4269/ajtmh.2009.09-0009;
Copyright © 2009 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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SHORT REPORT


Chikungunya Virus Isolated from a Returnee to Japan from Sri Lanka: Isolation of Two Sub-Strains with Different Characteristics

Chang-Kweng Lim*, Takeaki Nishibori, Kanako Watanabe, Mikako Ito, Akira Kotaki, Keiko Tanaka, Ichiro Kurane, AND Tomohiko Takasaki
Department of Virology I, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan; Department of Infectious Disease, Japanese Red Cross Nagaoka Hospital, Niigata, Japan; Virology Section, Niigata Prefectural Institute of Public Health and Environmental Sciences, Niigata, Japan; Department of Pathology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan

 

ABSTRACT

A large-scale epidemic of chikungunya (CHIK) fever occurred in several Indian Ocean islands in 2004 and spread to India and Sri Lanka. In December 2006, a returnee to Japan from Sri Lanka developed an acute febrile illness. The patient was confirmed to have CHIK fever after reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and specific IgM and IgG detection. CHIK virus was isolated from the serum specimen collected at the acute stage. The isolated virus developed two different sizes of plaques. Two sub-strains with different genetic and biological characteristics were obtained by plaque purification from one isolate. The entire genome was sequenced and phylogenetic analysis of the E1 genome showed that the sub-strains were of the Central/East African genotype, and were closely related to recent isolates in India. This is the first report of CHIK virus genome sequences isolated from a patient infected in Sri Lanka.

Received January 8, 2009. Accepted for publication July 20, 2009.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank Dr. Hervé Zeller, National Reference Center for Arboviruses and Institut Pasteur (Lyon, France), for providing us with CHIK fever patient serum. We also thank Dr. Richard Yanagihara, Departments of Pediatrics, Public Health Sciences and Epidemiology, and Tropical Medicine and Medical Microbiology, University of Hawaii at Manoa for his helpful discussion. Finally, the authors thank Dr. Tetsutaro Sata, Department of Pathology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases (Tokyo, Japan) for supporting our EM work.

Financial support: This work was supported by a grant for Research on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan (H19-Shinkou-ippan-003 and H20-Shinkou-ippan-015) and Research on Publicly Essential Drugs and Medical Devices from the Japan Health Sciences Foundation (KH53333, and KHC3332).

* Address correspondence to Chang-Kweng Lim, Department of Virology I, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan. E-mail: ck{at}nih.go.jp

Authors’ addresses: Chang-Kweng Lim, Mikako Ito, Akira Kotaki, Ichiro Kurane, and Tomohiko Takasaki, Department of Virology I, and Keiko Tanaka, Department of Pathology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjuku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan, Tel: 81-3-5285-1111, Fax: 81-3-5285-1188, E-mail: ck{at}nih.go.jp, kurane{at}nih.go.jp, and takasaki{at}nih.go.jp. Takeaki Nishibori, Japanese Red Cross Nagaoka Hospital, 2-297-1 Senshu, Nagaoka, Niigata 940-2085, Japan, Tel: 81-258-28-3600, Fax: 81-258-28-9000. Kanako Watanabe, Niigata Prefectural Institute of Public Health and Environmental Sciences, 314-1 Sowa, Nishi-ku, Niigata 950-2144, Japan, Tel: 81-25-263-9414, Fax: 81-25-263-9410.

Reprint requests: Chang-Kweng Lim, Department of Virology I, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan, Tel: 81-3-5285-1111, Fax: 81-3-5285-1188, E-mail: ck{at}nih.go.jp.






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