ISOLATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF DENGUE VIRUS SEROTYPE 3 IN RONDONIA, BRAZIL

Dengue Fever is a serious public health problem in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The state of Rondonia has 52 municipalities, of which 32 are found inside Amazonia Legal and 20 in border areas. In the period of January 2004 until May 2006, 160 blood samples were colleted from patients suspected of having DENV disease during outbreaks of dengue fever in the municipalities of Ariquemes, Jaru, Ouro Preto do Oeste, Cacoal, Colorado do Oeste, Vilhena and Porto Velho. Samples were submitted for viral isolation following RNA viral extraction and RT-PCR, in order to identify the dengue virus. Afterwards, hemi-nested-PCR was used to identify the viral serotype. Seventy eight samples were characterized as DENV-3. The amplicons characterized by hemi-nested-PCR were sequenced for similar research with nucleotide sequences of DENV-3 deposited in Genbank, using the BLAST program. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17525/vrrjournal.v13i1-2.16