VULVAR INFECTION AND POSSIBLE HUMAN-TO-HUMAN TRANSMISSION OF BOVINE POXVIRUS DISEASE

In a dairy cattle farm, father and son developed successively a vesicopustular infection, with lesions in the hands and wrists, after contact with cows with vesicular lesions on the udder. After sexual contact with her husband, the mother showed a severe vesicular vulvar infection, which healed in about three weeks, leaving no scars. All family members showed high levels of antibodies in a plaque reduction neutralization test, using as antigen a locally isolated poxvirus strain, identified as a vaccinia-like virus by sequencing techniques. These data reconfirm that vaccinia-like viruses are circulating in Brazil and that person-to-person transmission may occur, without any relation to vaccinations against smallpox. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17525/vrr.v14i1.27