Causative Agent of Pogosta Disease Isolated from Blood and Skin Lesions

摘要

Pogosta disease is a mosquito-borne viral disease inFinland, which is clinically manifested by rash and arthritis;larger outbreaks occur in 7-year intervals. The causativeagent of the disease has been suspected of being closelyrelated to Sindbis virus (SINV). We isolated SINV from fivepatients with acute Pogosta disease during an outbreak infall 2002 in Finland. One virus strain was recovered from awhole blood sample and four other strains from skinlesions. The etiology of Pogosta disease was confirmed bythese first Finnish SINV strains, which also represent thefirst human SINV isolates from Europe. Phylogenetic analy-sis indicates that the Finnish SINV strains are closely relat-ed to the viral agents that were previously isolated frommosquitoes and that are related clinically similar diseasesin nearby geographic areas