PARTIAL GENOMIC SEQUENCE DETERMINATION OF YELLOW-FEVER VIRUS-STRAIN ASSOCIATED WITH A RECENT EPIDEMIC IN GABON

A limited epidemic, with important mortality among the initial human c ases, occured in a forest region in the north of Gabon by the end of 1 994. It was identified as yellow fever according to first serological and reverse transcription/polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results, but no virus was isolated. We received 37 sera from people who lived i n the same region and presented symptoms of the disease during the per iod of concern. In ten of them, we were able to detect and identify ye llow fever virus (YFV) RNA by RT-PCR and endonuclease digestion of the RT-PCR products. Nucleotide (nt) sequence of two regions (242 and 161 nt long) ofYFV RNA was determined for three sera. As it differed from that of the Asibi strain ofYFV, the presence of a new topotype (strai n) ofYFV is presumed.