Emerging Infectious Diseases (Jan 2021)

Fatal Case of Chronic Jamestown Canyon Virus Encephalitis Diagnosed by Metagenomic Sequencing in Patient Receiving Rituximab

  • Isaac H. Solomon,
  • Vijay S. Ganesh,
  • Guixia Yu,
  • Xian Ding Deng,
  • Michael R. Wilson,
  • Steve Miller,
  • Tracey A. Milligan,
  • Shibani S. Mukerji,
  • Abigail Mathewson,
  • Justin Linxweiler,
  • Darlene Morse,
  • Jana M. Ritter,
  • J. Erin Staples,
  • Holly Hughes,
  • Carolyn V. Gould,
  • Pardis C. Sabeti,
  • Charles Y. Chiu,
  • Anne Piantadosi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2701.203448
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 27, no. 1
pp. 238 – 242

Abstract

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A 56-year-old man receiving rituximab who had months of neurologic symptoms was found to have Jamestown Canyon virus in cerebrospinal fluid by clinical metagenomic sequencing. The patient died, and postmortem examination revealed extensive neuropathologic abnormalities. Deep sequencing enabled detailed characterization of viral genomes from the cerebrospinal fluid, cerebellum, and cerebral cortex.

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