We describe a burn patient who developed skin lesions on her skin-graft harvest and skin-graft recipient (burn) sites. Orf virus infection was confirmed by a combination of diagnostic assays, including molecular tests, immunohistochemical analysis, pathologic analysis, and electron microscopy. DNA sequence analysis grouped this orf virus isolate among isolates from India. Although no definitive source of infection was determined from this case, this is the first reported case of orf virus infection in a skin graft harvest. Skin graft recipients with exposures to animals may be at risk for this viral infection.
Keywords: Orf virus; Parapoxvirus; skin graft; thermal burn.
Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2016. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.