An outbreak of aseptic meningitis was recorded in Greece during the year
2001. Detection of the clinical strains was achieved by performing
reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on RNA isolated
from cell cultures inoculated with treated faecal material from the
patients. Serotypic identification of the isolates with mixed equine
antisera pools followed and the RT-PCR amplicons were further studied by
restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and sequencing.
Fifty-three clinical enterovirus strains were isolated from respective
cases of suspected enterovirus infection, most of which showed the
clinical symptoms of aseptic meningitis. Echovirus (ECV) 6 was the most
frequently isolated serotype, followed by coxsackie B viruses, ECV13,
poliovirus type 1 (PV1) vaccine strain and ECV30. Nucleotide sequence
analysis showed the existence of different genetic groups on the basis
of the 5’-untranslated region (5’-UTR) of the genome, which circulated
in the population during the same time period. Different serotypes
belonged to the same genetic group and vice versa. The 5’-UTR seems to
be appropriate for the investigation of enterovirus evolution and
epidemiology. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
