Biosafety standards for working with Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus

In countries from which Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is absent, the causative virus CCHF virus (CCHFV) is classified as a hazard group 4 agent and handled in containment level 4. In contrast, most endemic countries out of necessity have had to perform diagnostic tests under biosafety level (BSL) -2 or -3 conditions. In particular, Turkey and several of the Balkan countries have safely processed more than 100000 samples over many years in BSL-2 laboratories. It is therefore advocated that biosafety requirements for CCHF diagnostic procedures should be revised, to allow the required tests to be performed under enhanced BSL-2 conditions with appropriate biosafety laboratory equipment and personal protective equipment used according to standardized protocols in the affected countries. Downgrading of CCHFV research work from Cl-4, BSL-4 to Cl-3, BSL-3 should also be considered.Additional co-authors: Gülay Korukluoglu, Pieter Lyssen, Ali Mirazimi, Johan Neyts, Matthias Niedrig, Aykut Ozkul, Anna Papa, Janusz Paweska, Amadou A Sall, Connie S Schmaljohn, Robert Swanepoel, Yavuz Uyar, Friedemann Weber, Herve Zelle

Clinical and laboratory findings of a sandfly fever Turkey Virus outbreak in Ankara

Sandfly fever (SF) is an arthropod-borne disease, which has not yet been reported from Ankara. In the summer of 2007, the disease started to be seen in our region, surprisingly causing severe clinical presentations. This report reviews the clinical and laboratory findings of patients with sandfly virus infection of disease outbreaks in 2008 and 2009. A retrospective single-centre descriptive study was performed. Clinically suspected cases were defined on the basis of epidemiologic history and clinical and laboratory findings. The sera samples of the suspected patients were sent to Germany for diagnostic assistance. 50 patients were included in the study. Fever, headache, photophobia, conjunctivitis, myalgia, arthralgia, nausea, abdominal pain and anorexia were common symptoms. Although the fever lasted only 3-6 days, complete recovery required up to 30 days. Leukopenia, thrombocytopenia and elevated serum aspartate-aminotransferase and alanine-aminotransferase levels were remarkable findings. The viral-load of Sandfly fever Turkey Virus (SFTV) was detected in the serum of acute patients ranged from 3.19 × 106 to 2.79 × 109 viral RNA molecules/ml. As a result we want to underline that the new type of sandfly virus causes a severe clinical picture with elevated liver enzymes and thrombocytopenia, to an extent not described before in the literature, which might be due to the elevated viral-load observed

ANALYSIS OF MUCINOUS BORDERLINE OVARIAN TUMORS: A MULTICENTER STUDY

WOS: 00042323520409