Surveillance of Adenovirus D in patients with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis from Fukui Prefecture, Japan, 1995-2010

Human adenoviruses species D (HAdV‐D) are known to cause severe epidemic keratoconjunctivitis. However, the isolation rate of HAdV‐D is not high, because HAdV‐D is usually slow to propagate. Although new types of HAdV‐D have been reported, accurate surveillance has not been performed because of difficulties in culturing the viruses and lack of a practical identification method. In this study, HAdV‐Ds were detected and identified from patients with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis in the Fukui Prefecture during 1995–2010 by PCR, loop‐mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) of DNA, and conventional virus isolation and neutralization tests. All samples were subjected to culture and PCR and LAMP. A total of 124 strains of HAdV‐D were detected from 157 patients with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis. The strains consisted of the following types: D8 (n = 8), D19 (n = 4), D37 (n = 40), D53 (n = 5), D54 (n = 66), and D56 (n = 1). Among these, D53, D54, and D56 are new types that have been reported recently. The results of this study demonstrated that new types of HAdV‐D caused epidemic keratoconjunctivitis during 1995–2010, and included an outbreak of keratoconjunctivitis caused by HAdV‐D54. The LAMP method was able to detect and identify HAdV‐D53 and HAdV–D54 in 1 hr, and may therefore be applicable for use at the bedside. J. Med. Virol. 84:81–86, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.