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- Page navigation anchor for Could Powassan Virus Be Endemic to British Columbia?Could Powassan Virus Be Endemic to British Columbia?
The detective work of Sanderson et al. associates a Powassan virus infection in British Columbia with acquisition in Quebec.(1) Consideration of the known zoonoses that could be acquired in British Columbia would complicate the differential diagnosis for the clinical presentation that was described were it not for the virological studies.(2) The history of tick bite, tick acquisition and speciation, and the viral genome detection were obvious clues to the likelihood of acquisition in eastern Canada. If the history of travel and tick bite were not apparent and Powassan virus serology was yet highly suggestive of infection, would the question have arisen as to whether the infection could have been acquired in British Columbia? The latter might have been further supported by an incubation period as short as one week.
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Donald McLean and colleagues first isolated Powassan virus from post-mortem brain tissue at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.(3) Whereas Dr. McLean and many others conducted extensive Powassan virus epidemiological studies in Ontario and Quebec, he continued with similar investigations in British Columbia after becoming a member of the Department of Microbiology, The University of British Columbia. It is this latter work and similar which should be highlighted in this context.
McLean and associates first reported on the presence of putative Powassan virus activity among wildlife in southeastern British Columbia.(4) The region of study overl...Competing Interests: None declared.