Author(s): Maia, Carla ; Ayhan, Nazli ; Cristóvão, José Manuel ; Pereira, André ; Charrel, Remi
Date: 2022
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/134560
Origin: Repositório Institucional da UNL
Subject(s): Humans; Microneutralization; Portugal; Seroprevalence; Sicilian phlebovirus; Toscana virus; Microbiology (medical); Infectious Diseases; Virology; SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Funding Information: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT) for funding through contract GHTM-UID/Multi/04413/2013 and Investigator Starting Grant IF/01302/2015. AP was supported by the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science (via FCT) through a PhD grant (SFRH/BD/116516/2016). Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
Toscana virus (TOSV) is emergent in the Mediterranean region and responsible for outbreaks of encephalitis or meningoencephalitis. Sicilian phlebovirus (SFSV) cause epidemics of febrile illness during the summer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of antibodies against TOSV and SFSV in humans in the southwest of Portugal. Neutralizing antibodies to TOSV and SFSV were respectively detected in 5.3% and 4.3% out of 400 human sera tested highlighting the need to increase public health awareness regarding phleboviruses and to include them in the differential diagnosis in patients presenting with fever of short duration and neurological manifestations.
