A note on Saffold virus

Greetings

    Everywhere on Microbiology science, From the local reporters to international Journals focus, HIV makes the news. By the time you have finished reading this sentence, you would have noted what am talking about. Yes am talking about a case where there is absolute cure. This was a case from Johns Hopkins Children's Center, where an infant given prompt therapy showed complete erasing of HIV. So much has been written about this on web, so i will just leave you with an useful Link to the whole story.

    Now, I want to make a quick note on a recent virus of interest- Saffold virus. In the recent times, specially the past 6-8 months the importance of this is slowly looked into. Its important to note that not enough research has been done in this to give you a very detailed post . Also they have not caused panic outbreak.

   Saffold virus (SAFV) , is a member of Cardiovirus family Picornaviridae. That means, they are single stranded RNA viruses. The virus was first identified in 2007, from a stool sample of a girl presenting with a Pyrexia of unknown origin. More recently it has also been isolated from nasal and stool specimens of infants presenting with respiratory or gastrointestinal symptoms and from children with non-polio acute flaccid paralysis. When a situation such as this arises, a serological survey is done to estimate possible seroconversions. When this was done, SAFV was shown to be possibly a widespread virus causing infection in early childhood.

    For diagnosis, the virus can be grown in human fetal diploid kidney cells or in suckling mice. A total of 7 genotypes have been described.

Zoll J, Erkens Hulshof S, Lanke K, Verduyn Lunel F, Melchers WJ, Schoondermark-van de Ven E, Roivainen M, Galama JM, & van Kuppeveld FJ (2009). Saffold virus, a human Theiler's-like cardiovirus, is ubiquitous and causes infection early in life. PLoS pathogens, 5 (5) PMID: 19412527

Nielsen AC, Böttiger B, Banner J, Hoffmann T, & Nielsen LP (2012). Serious invasive Saffold virus infections in children, 2009. Emerging infectious diseases, 18 (1), 7-12 PMID: 22261113