Search

Venezuelan equine encephalitis complex alphaviruses (VEEVs) are arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) (2,2). Most VEE complex viruses can infect livestock and humans, causing predominantly acute febrile illness; some VEE complex viruses, including [...]

The epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was caused by a newly emerged coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Bats of several species in southern People's Republic of China harbor SARS-like CoVs and [...]

Respiratory infections constitute the most widespread human infectious disease, and a substantial proportion of them are caused by unknown etiological agents. Reoviruses (respiratory enteric orphan viruses) were first isolated from humans in the early 1950s and so named because they were not associated with any known disease. Here, we report a previously unknown reovirus (named 'Melaka virus') isolated from a 39-year-old male patient in Melaka, Malaysia, who was suffering from high fever and acute respiratory disease at the time of virus isolation. Two of his family members developed similar symptoms ~1 week later and had serological evidence of infection with the same virus. Epidemiological tracing revealed that the family was exposed to a bat in the house [approximately equal to] 1 week before the onset of the father's clinical symptoms. Genome sequence analysis indicated a close genetic relationship between Melaka virus and Pulau virus, a reovirus isolated in 1999 from fruit bats in Tioman Island, Malaysia. Screening of sera collected from human volunteers on the island revealed that 14 of 109 (13%) were positive for both Pulau and Melaka viruses. This is the first report of an orthoreovirus in association with acute human respiratory diseases. Melaka virus is serologically not related to the different types of mammalian reoviruses that were known to infect humans asymptomatically. These data indicate that batborne reoviruses can be transmitted to and cause clinical diseases in humans. respiratory infection/zoonosis/human-to-human transmission/ orthoreovirus/Pulau virus

The Aravan virus was isolated from a Lesser Mouse-eared Bat (Myotis blythi) in the Osh region of Kyrghyzstan, central Asia, in 1991. We determined the complete sequence of the nucleoprotein [...]

Bat species worldwide have been implicated as reservoirs for several emerging viruses, such as lyssaviruses, henipahviruses, severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronaviruses, and filoviruses. Bats have several physiologic, cellular, and natural [...]

The 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was caused by a novel betacoronavirus and rapidly spread globally, causing ≅ 8,000 cases and nearly 900 deaths (1,2). In June [...]

The silver-haired bat variant of rabies virus (SHBRV) has been identified as the etiological agent of a number of recent human rabies cases in the United States that are unusual in not having been associated with any known history of conventional exposure. Comparison of the different biological and biochemical properties of isolates of this virus with those of a coyote street rabies virus (COSRV) revealed that there are unique features associated with SHBRV. In vitro studies showed that, while the susceptibility of neuroblastoma cells to infection by both viruses was similar, the infectivity of SHBRV was much higher than that of COSRV in fibroblasts (BHK-21) and epithelial cells (MA-104), particularly when these cells were kept at 34 [degrees] C. At this temperature, low pH-dependent fusion and cell-to-cell spread of virus is seen in BHK-21 cells infected with SHBRV but not with COSRV. It appears that SHBRV may possess an unique cellular tropism and the ability to replicate at lower temperature, allowing a more effective local replication in the dermis. This hypothesis is supported by in vivo results which showed that while SHBRV is less neurovirulent than COSRV when administered via the intramuscular or intranasal routes, both viruses are equally neuroinvasive if injected intracranially or intradermally. Consistent with the above findings, the amino acid sequences of the glycoproteins of SHBRV and COSRV were found to have substantial differences, particularly in the region that contains the putative toxic loop, which are reflected in marked differences in their antigenic composition. Nevertheless, an experimental rabies vaccine based on the Pittman Moore vaccine strain protected mice equally well from lethal doses of SHBRV and COSRV, suggesting that currently used vaccines should be effective in the postexposure prophylaxis of rabies due to SHBRV.

To the Editor: Leptospirosis is a zoonosis of global distribution; incidence rates are particularly high in tropical areas (1). Leptospirosis is a major public health problem on islands in the [...]

To the Editor: Tick-borne relapsing fevers caused by members of the genus Borrelia have been encountered throughout Africa, Asia, the Americas and, rarely, in southern Europe (1). The Borrelia species [...]

Lyssavirus surveillance in bats was performed in Bangladesh during 2003 and 2004. No virus isolates were obtained. Three serum samples (all from Pteropus giganteus, n = 127) of 288 total [...]

Studies were conducted to provide information on the relative occurrence of rabies in bats, to evaluate seasonal and long-term trends in bat rabies levels in Indiana and to compare rabies rates in normally behaving bats to bats submitted by citizens. The highest rates of rabies were found in the hoary bat and eastern pipistrelle, while none of the normally behaving big brown bats examined from areas where rabid bats had occurred were rabid.

White-nose syndrome, caused by the pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans, has caused precipitous declines in bat populations of eastern North America since its emergence in 2007. Symptoms of the disease, such as [...]

The flat-faced fruit bat (Artibeus planirostris; pictured) in Peru carries a flu virus that was previously unknown to science. H18N11 is the second influenza A virus to be identified in [...]

Between 5.7 million and 6.7 million bats have been killed by white-nose syndrome in North America since 2006, biologists agreed on 17 January, after a meeting of the Northeast Bat [...]

Science 329, 679-682 (2010); Emerging Infect. Dis. 16, 1237-1242 (2010) Bad news from the bat cave: white-nose syndrome, a fungus that has been killing hibernating bats in eastern North America, [...]