Journal of General Virology

Detection of measles virus genome in bone-marrow aspirates from adults

Satomi Sonoda,^1,3 Mitsuo Kitahara² and Tetsuo Nakayama³

¹ Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Keio University, Shinano-Machi 35, Shinjyuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan
² Department of Internal Medicine, Saiseikai Central Hospital, Mita 1-4-17, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0073, Japan
³ Laboratory of Virology, The Kitasato Institute for Life Sciences, Shirokane 5-9-1, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8642, Japan

We investigated the presence of the measles virus genome in order to identify asymptomatic infections in the adult population. Bone-marrow aspirates were obtained from 179 patients, 20–96 years of age, for the diagnosis of malignant diseases (29 with malignant lymphoma, 28 with acute leukaemia, 21 with myelodysplastic syndrome, five with multiple myeloma and 96 with other diseases). The measles virus genome was detected in 17 (9.5 %) of 179 individuals by RT–PCR and 28 (15.6 %) through hybridization. The genomes detected in bone marrow were all in the same cluster, D5, the strain circulating during the study period, and no evidence of persistent infection was obtained. We conclude that asymptomatic infections of measles virus are common in adults and the presence of the measles virus genome would not be related to the pathogenesis of illness.

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© 2002 SGM

This article is now available in the October 2002 print issue of JGV (vol. 83, 2485–2488). The complete issue of the journal may be seen in electronic form on JGV Online.