Duvenhage virus is a member of the lyssavirus genus which also contains rabies virus. The virus was discovered in 1970 when a South African farmer (after whom the virus is named) died of a rabies-like encephalitic illness after being bitten by a bat.[1] In 2006, Duvenhage virus claimed a second victim when a man was scratched by a bat in North West Province, South Africa, 80 km from the 1970 infection [2]. He developed a rabies-like illness 27 days later and died 14 days after the onset of illness. A 34 year old woman who died in Amsterdam on December 8, 2007 was the third recorded fatality. She had been scratched on the nose by a small bat while travelling through Kenya in October 2007 and was admitted to hospital four weeks later with rabies-like symptoms[3].
Microbats are believed to be the natural reservoir of Duvenhage virus. It has been isolated twice from insectivorous bats, in 1981 from Miniopterus schreibersi and in 1986 from Nycteris thebaica,[2] and is closely related to another bat-associated lyssavirus endemic to Africa, Lagos bat virus.
[edit] References
- ^ Tignor GH, Murphy FA, Clark HF, et al. (1977). "Duvenhage virus: morphological, biochemical, histopathological and antigenic relationships to the rabies serogroup". J Gen Virol 37 (3): 595–611. doi:10.1099/0022-1317-37-3-595. http://vir.sgmjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/37/3/595.
- ^ a b Paweska JT, Blumberg LH, Liebenberg C et al. (December 2006). "Fatal human infection with rabies-related Duvenhage virus, South Africa". Emerging Infect. Dis. 12 (12): 1965–7. PMID 17326954. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no12/06-0764.htm.
- ^ van Thiel PP, van den Hoek JAR, Eftimov F et al. (January 2008). "Fatal case of human rabies (Duvenhage virus) from a bat in Kenya: the Netherlands, December 2007". Eurosurveillance. 13 (2): 1–2. PMID 18445390.
