Extrapulmonary and Fetal Infection with H5N1 Influenza Virus

H5N1 viral sequences and antigens were found at autopsy in multiple tissues from two adults and a fetus.

Autopsy data are available for very few of the approximately 200 people reported to have died from H5N1 virus infection. Investigators recently examined postmortem tissues from two Chinese adults (and the fetus carried by 1 of them) infected with H5N1 to assess the virus’s tissue tropism. They used in situ hybridization and immunochemistry to detect H5N1 antigens in tissue and reverse-transcriptase (RT) PCR, real-time and strand-specific RT-PCR, and nucleic acid sequence–based amplification to detect viral RNA.

In the adults, viral antigens and genomic sequences were detected in multiple extrapulmonary tissues, including brain neurons, placental cells, and T cells of lymph nodes. In the respiratory tract, viral antigens and sequences were fo…

Reviewing Author

Mary E. Wilson, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardOneHealthTrust (formerly Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics, and Policy); Global Health Institute, University of Wisconsin

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Editorial BoardsJournal of Travel Medicine

Mary E. Wilson, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardOneHealthTrust (formerly Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics, and Policy); Global Health Institute, University of Wisconsin

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Editorial BoardsJournal of Travel Medicine

Extrapulmonary and Fetal Infection with H5N1 Influenza Virus

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Reviewing Author