Background: Laboratory diagnosis of measles virus (MV) infection and genetic characterization of circulating MV play an essential role in measles surveillance, allowing proper interventions to interrupt endemic transmission.
Objectives: We describe results obtained using serological and molecular methods to confirm MV infection among suspected cases reported in a large region in the north of Italy during 2010-2014 and the genotyping of the MV strains detected.
Study design: Three hundred seventy-two samples (361 urine and 11 oral fluids) were tested for MV-RNA detection. In 281 cases, the serological results for MV-IgM detection were also available.
Results: A total of 276 cases were classified as confirmed measles and MV-RNA detection resulted positive for 239/276 cases. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed sporadic cases of genotypes D9 and different circulations of endemic MV strains (D8, D4 and B3).
Conclusions: This data suggests that there is still an unvaccinated part of the population maintaining the endemic circulation of MV in Italy.
Keywords: Genetic characterization; Measles virus; Molecular methods; Sampling time; Serological diagnosis.
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