Greek measles epidemic strain, 2005–2006

The purpose of this work was the molecular study of the virus strain that caused the last measles outbreak in Greece. Twenty-four saliva specimens were obtained from selected patients serologically confirmed as measles cases between December 2005 and March 2006. Measles virus (MV) detection was performed by a nested RT–PCR. The 447-bp segment of the N gene of these MV strains was used for genotyping. The N gene sequences of the Greek MV strains were identical to each other, therefore a phylogenetic tree was constructed using one representative MV (ThesGRE/06). Our data show that the MV strain which caused the 2005–2006 outbreak in Greece belongs to genotype D6, and differs by 0·68% from the New Jersey D6 strain and by 5·5% from the MV vaccine strain Edmonston B (U03656) belonging to genotype A