Emergence of Toscana Virus, Romania, 2017–2018

Abstract

We describe a series of severe neuroinvasive infections caused by Toscana virus, identified by real-time reverse transcription PCR testing, in 8 hospitalized patients in Bucharest, Romania, during the summer seasons of 2017 and 2018. Of 8 patients, 5 died. Sequencing showed that the circulating virus belonged to lineage A.

Keywords

• Toscana virus
• Toscana phlebovirus
• TOSV
• Phlebovirus
• Phenuiviridae
• encephalitis