The current yellow fever outbreak in Brazil prompted widespread yellow fever virus (YFV) vaccination campaigns, imposing a responsibility to distinguish between vaccine- and wild-type YFV-associated disease. We developed novel multiplex real-time reverse transcription PCRs that differentiate between vaccine and American wild-type YFV. We validated these highly specific and sensitive assays in an outbreak setting.
Keywords: Americas; Brazil; real-time RT-PCR; reverse transcription PCR; surveillance; vaccine safety; vector-borne infections; viruses; yellow fever virus.