ISOLATION OF BATAI VIRUS (BUNYAVIRIDAE, BUNYAVIRUS) FROM THE BLOOD OFSUSPECTED MALARIA PATIENTS IN SUDAN

From August through November 1988, 77,500 patients with fever presente d to the municipal hospital and to eight government health centers in Kassala, a town of approximately 400,000 individuals in eastern Sudan. A diagnosis of malaria, based primarily on clinical presentation, was made in 14,395 individuals during this four-month period; fevers of u nknown origin were diagnosed in 29 patients. A Bunyavirus that was ant igenically similar or identical to Batai virus by complement fixation and plaque-reduction neutralization tests was recovered from two of 19 6 sera collected from patients with acute fever admitted to the munici pal hospital in Kassala in October 1988. IgM antibody against this vir us was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 7% of the sera from patients with acute fever tested and IgG antibody was detected i n 61%.