Molecular detection of Zika virus in blood and RNA load determination during the French Polynesian outbreak.

ABSTRACT: Zika virus (ZIKV) viremia is reported as low and transient; however, these estimates rely on limited data. We report RNA loads in sera collected from symptomatic patients during the 2013-2014 French Polynesian ZIKV outbreak. We performed molecular detection of ZIKV RNA in sera from 747 patients presenting with suspected acute phase ZIKV infection. Among patients with confirmed infection, we analyzed the duration of viremia, assessed viral RNA loads and recorded the main clinical symptoms. A total of 210/747 (28.1%) sera tested positive using a ZIKV-specific RT-PCR. Viral RNA loads in symptomatic patients that ranged from 5 to 3.7 × 10⁶  copies/mL (mean 9.9 × 10⁴  copies/mL) were not related to a particular clinical presentation, and were significantly lower than those

SUBMITTER: Musso D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5575554 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature