Abstract
Purpose: :
Acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis (AHC) similar to epidemic keratoconjunctivitis is a highly infectious virus causing conjunctivitis. Enterovirus 70 (EV70) and coxsackievirus A24 variant (CA24v) are known as its etiology. AHC epidemics has occurred in many parts of the world since 1960s. In the summer of 2011, a large epidemic of AHC occurred in Okinawa,Japan. We performed virological analysis on the etiology.
Methods: :
Ten eyes of 10 patients with clinically diagnosed AHC at Asato eye clinic,Okinawa,Japan from July 2, 2011 to July 7, 2011 were enrolled in this study. The conjunctival scraping was extracted by the method reported by Ishiko and Hosoya. Sequence analysis of enterovirus VP4 region was conducted after amplification by real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The classification for virus type was performed.
Results: :
This epidemic began in early June and reached its peak in early July. Thereafter, the number of patients gradually decreased, but prevalence is still continuing at present. Nine out of ten patients were positive for enterovirus by RT-PCR method. All of them were identified as Enterovirus Species C. CA24v was the cause of this epidemic.
Conclusions: :
This is a large outbreak of AHC by CA24v in 1985. The epidemic scale was comparable to it. The decreasing number of people having the antibody may have been a possible reason for this resurgence. Cause of this resurgence needs further investigation.
Keywords: conjunctivitis • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: natural history • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence