Duvenhage lyssavirus

Duvenhage lyssavirus
Virus classification Edit this classification
(unranked): Virus
Realm: Riboviria
Kingdom: Orthornavirae
Phylum: Negarnaviricota
Class: Monjiviricetes
Order: Mononegavirales
Family: Rhabdoviridae
Genus: Lyssavirus
Species:
Duvenhage lyssavirus
Synonyms[1]

Duvenhage virus

Duvenhage lyssavirus (DUVV) is a member of the genus Lyssavirus, which also contains the 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.[2] In 2006, Duvenhage virus killed a second person, when a man was scratched by a bat in North West Province, South Africa, 80 km from the 1970 infection.[3] He developed a rabies-like illness 27 days after the bat encounter, 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.[4]

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,[3] and the virus is closely related to another bat-associated lyssavirus endemic to Africa, Lagos bat lyssavirus.

  1. ^ Walker, Peter (15 June 2015). "Implementation of taxon-wide non-Latinized binomial species names in the family Rhabdoviridae" (PDF). International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). Retrieved 16 September 2019. Rabies virus Rabies lyssavirus rabies virus (RABV)[M13215]
  2. ^ Tignor G. H.; Murphy, F. A.; Clark, H. F.; Shope, R. E.; Madore, P.; Bauer, S. P.; Buckley, S. M.; Meredith, C. D. (1977). "Duvenhage Virus: Morphological, Biochemical, Histopathological and Antigenic Relationships to the Rabies Serogroup" (PDF). Journal of General Virology. 37 (3): 595–611. doi:10.1099/0022-1317-37-3-595.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ a b Paweska, J. T.; Blumberg, L. H.; Liebenberg, C.; Hewlett, R. H.; Grobbelaar, A. A.; Leman, P. A.; Croft, J. E.; Nel, L. H.; Nutt, L.; Swanepoel, R. (December 2006). "Fatal Human Infection with Rabies-Related Duvenhage Virus, South Africa" (PDF). Emerging Infectious Diseases. 12 (12): 1965–1967. doi:10.3201/eid1212.060764. PMC 3291369. PMID 17326954.
  4. ^ van Thiel, P. P.; van den Hoek, J. A.; Eftimov, F.; Tepaske, R.; Zaaijer, H. J.; Spanjaard, L.; de Boer, H. E.; van Doornum G. J.; Schutten M.; Osterhaus, A.; Kager, P. A. (January 2008). "Fatal Case of Human Rabies (Duvenhage Virus) from a Bat in Kenya: The Netherlands, December 2007" (PDF). Eurosurveillance. 13 (2): 1–2. doi:10.2807/ese.13.02.08007-en. PMID 18445390. Article ID 8007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2012-02-24.