Unique Presentation of Orf Virus Infection in a Thermal-Burn Patient After Receiving an Autologous Skin Graft

We describe a burn patient who developed skin lesions on her skin-graft harvest and skin-graft recipient (burn) sites. Orf virus infection was confirmed by a combination of diagnostic assays, including molecular tests, immunohistochemical analysis, pathologic analysis, and electron microscopy. DNA sequence analysis grouped this orf virus isolate among isolates from India. Although no definitive source of infection was determined from this case, this is the first reported case of orf virus infection in a skin graft harvest. Skin graft recipients with exposures to animals may be at risk for this viral infection.

Source: The Journal of Infectious Diseases - September 22, 2016 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Hsu, C. H., Rokni, G. R., Aghazadeh, N., Brinster, N., Li, Y., Muehlenbachs, A., Goldsmith, C. S., Zhao, H., Petersen, B., McCollum, A. M., Reynolds, M. G. Tags: VIRUSES Source Type: research