THURSDAY, Jan. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Saffold virus (SAFV), which can cause serious invasive infection in children, has been identified in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of two children in Denmark, according to a viral genotyping study published in the January issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Alex Christian Yde Nielsen, M.D., of the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, and colleagues designed a real-time, diagnostic polymerase chain reaction for SAFV, and tested CSF samples from children 4 years of age or younger.
The researchers detected SAFV in two children: in the CSF and a fecal sample from a child with monosymptomatic ataxia caused by cerebellitis, and in the CSF, blood, and myocardium of a child who died suddenly with no history of illness.
"We have established SAFV virus as a cause of invasive infection and a highly probable cause of severe disease in children," write the authors. "More studies are needed to further illuminate the role of SAFV as a human pathogen."
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