Letter to the editor. Further identification of a measles variant displaying mutations impacting molecular diagnostics, Northern Italy, 2024

To the editor: We read with great interest the article by Pérez-Rodríguez et al. [1], reporting the circulation of measles virus (MeV) variants (genotype D8) displaying three mutations impacting molecular diagnostics. The mutations occurred in the 450nt-long C-terminal (N-450) region of the nucleoprotein (N) gene that is usually the target of real-time reverse-transcription (RT)-PCR assays commonly employed by surveillance laboratories. In detail, the three T-to-C synonymous substitutions were located within the annealing site of the reverse primer recommended by the United States Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta) [2]. This results in a slight loss of test sensitivity.