New virus variant identified in Korean hemorrhagic conjunctivitis outbreak

A national outbreak of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis in South Korea during 2002 was the result of a causative agent not usually associated with the condition in in Koreans, according to a study.

Myoung-don Oh and colleagues at the Seoul National University College of Medicine took conjunctival swabs from 88 affected individuals during the height of the acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis (AHC) epidemic, which affected more than 1 million people at its peak.

Several large outbreaks of AHC have occurred in South Korea, but causative agents were not identified in years past. The etiologic agent of this outbreak was coxsackievirus A24 variant, as confirmed by both virus isolation and gene sequencing. Analysis confirmed that the Korean isolates were clustered into a lineage distinct from CA24v isolates reported in previous AHC outbreaks in Asia.

The study is published in the August issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases.