CASE REPORTS   

Esperienze Dermatologiche 2009 March;11(1):23-5

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

Parapox virus infection (ORF): case report

Boccia L. ¹, Buonomo C. ², Nacca L. ³, Vozza G. ³

¹ Struttura Dipartimentale Dermatologia Pediatrica, AORN Sant’Anna e San Sebastiano, Caserta 2 Unità Operativa Complessa di Anatomia Patologica, AORN Sant’Anna e San Sebastiano, Caserta 3 Dermatologia e Venereologia, Seconda Università di Napoli, Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Polo di Caserta, Caserta

This article reports the case of a 47-year-old patient, who had recently become a sheep farmer, and presented with one nodular skin lesion on the right forearm caused by an epitheliotropic Parapox virus, known as ORF or Ecthyma contagiosum, acquired from sheep or goats, in which the virus causes crusted lesions on the lips and on the mouth. In lesions less than two-week old, the viral cause can be shown by tissue cultures in various cell types, including bovine or rhesus monkey kidney cells and human amnion cells or fibroblast. In inveterate lesions, changes of antibody titer are relieved in the patient’s serum and the viral antigen in the lesion is isolated.