Fatal encephalitis and Borna Disease Virus‐1 seropositivity in two kidney‐transplant patients living in the same non‐endemic area
Résumé
A recent report has documented the link between fatal encephalitis and infection by Borna Disease Virus-1 (BoDV-1, species Mammalian 1 orthobornavirus). To date, however, all reported cases originated from a geographical area (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) where BoDV-1 is endemic in its animal reservoir, the bicolored white-toothed shrew (Crocidura leucodon). Cases have been supposedly linked to zoonotic and/or iatrogenic infections of either immunosuppressed or healthy individuals, although the epidemiology of human bornavirus encephalitis remains ill-defined. Notably, the question of whether similar cases could also occur in other geographical areas remains open, including in regions where the virus epidemiology has not been studied. Here, we report two probable cases of unspecified bornavirus encephalitis/encephalopathy (as defined in Ref. [1]) in two French transplant recipient patients living in the same geographical area (Tarbes, France).