The first serological detection of West Nile virus infection among residents living in northern Turkey Taskin MH, Tamer C, Muftuoglu B, Ozan E, Kilic SS, Akkoyunlu GK, Kurucay HN, Albayrak Hs, Igde M, Mesquita JR, Elhag AE, Gumusova S, Yazici Z,

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The first serological detection of West Nile virus infection among residents living in northern Turkey Mehmet Hakan Taskin¹, Cuneyt Tamer², Bahadir Muftuoglu³, Emre Ozan³, Suleyman Sirri Kilic⁴, Gokce Kubra Akkoyunlu⁵, Hanne Nur Kurucay², Harun s Albayrak², Mahir Igde⁶, João R Mesquita⁷, Ahmed Eisa Elhag⁸, Semra Gumusova², Zafer Yazici² ¹ Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Samsun, 55080 Samsun ² Department of Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ondokuz Mayis University, 55139 Samsun, Turkey ³ Department of Veterinary Experimental Animals, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ondokuz Mayis University, 55139 Samsun, Turkey ⁴ Department of Infectious Diseases, Samsun Training and Research Hospital, University of Health Sciences, 55090 Samsun, Turkey ⁵ Department of Hematology, Samsun Training and Research Hospital, University of Health Sciences, 55090 Samsun, Turkey ⁶ Department of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Istinye University, 34010 Istanbul, Turkey ⁷ ICBAS-School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto, 4050313 Porto, Portugal ⁸ Department of Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ondokuz Mayis University, 55139 Samsun, Turkey; Department of Preventive Medicine and Clinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, University of Gadarif, 32211 Al Qadarif, Sudan Correspondence Address: Ahmed Eisa Elhag, Department of Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ondokuz Mayis University, 55139 Atakum/Samsun, Turkey Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None DOI: 10.4103/0972-9062.364755

Background & objectives: West Nile virus (WNV) is transmitted by a mosquito-borne virus whose natural reservoir is birds. Humans and horses are considered accidental hosts. Even if the vast majority of WNV infections in humans have asymptomatic or mild disease settings, serious neurological disorders with lethal outcomes can also be observed in around 1% of cases. We aimed to serologically investigate the presence of WNV in humans living in Blacksea region of Turkey, also to obtain epidemiological data that will contribute to the implementation of public health policies to control and prevent potentially other life-threatening arboviral infections. Methods: In the current study, a total of 416 human sera were collected from native patients of Samsun and its boroughs attending Samsun Training and Research Hospital; then these sera were tested for WNV with pooling method, using anti-IgM and IgG ELISA commercial kits. All pools that found positive for both IgM and IgG were individually retested for the detection of positive WNV sera. After that, all positive samples were tested using real-time PCR to detect the presence of WNV-RNA particles. Results: Total seropositivity rates of WNV in terms of IgM and IgG were found as 0.96% and 0.72%, respectively. No presence of WNV-RNA could be detected in positive samples. Interpretation & conclusion: According to the data, further studies should be conducted to better understand the epidemiological dynamics of WNV in Turkey. It is recommended that other antigenically related flaviviruses which can give cross-reaction with WNV should also be investigated.

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    -  Taskin MH
    -  Tamer C
    -  Muftuoglu B
    -  Ozan E
    -  Kilic SS
    -  Akkoyunlu GK
    -  Kurucay HN
    -  Albayrak Hs
    -  Igde M
    -  Mesquita JR
    -  Elhag AE
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