We report the first genetic characterization of wildtypemeasles viruses from Uganda. Thirty-six virus isolates fromoutbreaks in 6 districts were analyzed from 2000 to 2002.Analyses of sequences of the nucleoprotein (N) andhemagglutinin (H) genes showed that the Ugandan isolateswere all closely related, and phylogenetic analysis indicat-ed that these viruses were members of a unique groupwithin clade D. Sequences of the Ugandan viruses werenot closely related to any of the World Health Organizationreference sequences representing the 22 currently recog-nized genotypes. The minimum nucleotide divergencebetween the Ugandan viruses and the most closely relatedreference strain, genotype D2, was 3.1% for the N geneand 2.6% for the H gene. Therefore, Ugandan virusesshould be considered a new, proposed genotype (d10).This new sequence information will expand the utility ofmolecular epidemiologic techniques for describing measlestransmission patterns in eastern Africa
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