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Molecular Detection of West Nile Virus in Pediatric Patients with Meningitis and Encephalitis
Seyed Dawood Mousavi Nasab , Zahra Ivani , Fatemeh Rostami-Shakhoni , Bahman Khalesi , Zahra Farahani , Mohammad Hassan Firouzjani , Mehdi Fazlalipour , Mostafa Ghaderi *
Department of Human Viral Vaccine, Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran
Abstract:   (2 Views)
Introduction: West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne pathogen of the Flaviviridae family with a global distribution. It is a significant cause of neurological diseases, including meningitis and encephalitis, in children. This study employed a SYBR Green-based real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assay to detect and quantify WNV RNA in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from children presenting with meningitis and encephalitis. Methods: CSF samples (n=160) were collected from children diagnosed with aseptic meningitis or encephalitis at a single medical center in Karaj, Iran, from September 2019 to October 2020. Samples were analyzed by RT-qPCR, with viral loads quantified against a standard curve generated from serial dilutions of a plasmid containing the WNV capsid (C) gene. Results: Two of 160 CSF samples (1.25%; 95% CI: 0.15–4.46%) tested were positive for WNV genomic RNA. The viral loads were 3.4 × 10³ and 1.2 × 10⁵ copies per reaction in a 3-year-old female and a 4-year-old male patient, respectively. Conclusion: The low prevalence of WNV observed, coupled with the limited sample size and reports of higher prevalence in other regions, underscores the need for larger, multicenter studies to better define WNV epidemiology in children.
 

 
Keywords: West Nile Virus, Meningitis, Encephalitis, Pediatric, Iran, RT-qPCR
     
Type of Study: Original article | Subject: Infectious diseases and public health
Received: 2025/01/27 | Accepted: 2025/12/10
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Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.