Rapid identification of Toscana virus by nested PCR during an outbreak in the Siena area of Italy

Abstract

The sand fly-transmitted Toscana virus is recognized as an etiologic agent of an aseptic meningitis with a long convalescence. This infection has been reported overall in many tourists or in a seronegative population circulating in endemic Mediterranean areas (Italy, Portugal, Egypt, and Cyprus). We report a cluster of acute Toscana virus infections in the local population during the summer of 1995. Twenty-one clinical cases of meningitis were investigated for the presence of Toscana virus by nested PCR performed on the S segment of the virus RNA extracted from cerebrospinal fluid samples.