Molecular epidemiology of measles virus before and after the 2003 mass vaccination campaign for measles/rubella in Iran

Molecular epidemiology of measles virus [MV] is important, not only to measure the success of measles vaccination programs but also to monitor the circulation and elimination of the virus worldwide. In this study, we compared MV obtained from patients before the 2003 mass vaccination MR campaign and viruses detected after 2003 until 2008 in Iran. The nucleoprotein [N] gene of 29 MV strains circulating in Iran between 2002 and 2008 were amplified by RT-PCR and subjected to sequence and phylogenetic analysis. Molecular characterization of MV studied here revealed that although the outbreaks in Iran were associated with MV genotype D4, the isolated viruses clearly belonged to several different lineages. Maximum and minimum homology within the 29 Iranian strains in our study was100% and 94.9% within the carboxyl terminus of the N gene, respectively. Using Clustal X program, the alignment of Iranian MV sequences showed nine lineages. This study provides the usefulness of MV sequence analysis for the demonstration of local interruption of indigenous strain transmission as well as providing a valuable means for monitoring the elimination processes of MV control

Influenza surveillance in the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1991 to 2001

To better underst and the annual distribution of influenza virus in our country, we isolated and typed 45 viruses from 1043 patients with acute respiratory illnesses in a 10-year study conducted by the National Influenza Centre of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The seasonal distribution of influenza typically ran from November to April. Type A influenza was most common during the winters of 1991-92, 1997-98 and 2000-01 and type B influenza was most common during 1992-5 and 1996-97. Both type A and type B viruses circulated in 1995-96 and 1998-2000. A serological survey based on haemagglutination inhibition test confirmed our findings. The annual pattern of strains isolated was similar to the worldwide pattern during the same interval