End Times: three new diseases to worry about
May 25th, 2008
If it wasn’t bad enough that cyclones are wiping people out in Burma, and earthquakes have laid waste to China, not to mention a global food crisis in progress, the powers that be have seen fit to send a trio of unpleasant plagues to visit mankind. Here’s what you need to know about the brand new pestilences.
Chapare Virus
First reported a month ago by scientists writing in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens, this haemorrhagic fever is named after the river close to where it was discovered. Symptoms include flu-like headache, fever and muscle pains, rapidly deteriorating into bleeding and shock, and possible death. Related viruses have a mortality rate of around 30%.
The Good News
Chapare Virus is restricted to a small area of Bolivia.
The Bad News
It’s probably carried by rodents, which are everywhere. And almost every rodent seems to have its own similar virus.
Should you be worried?
Unless you’re planning to get bitten by a rat in Bolivia in the Chapare River area, you’re probably OK. Of course, there’s also Lassa Fever, and the Junin, Machupo, Guanarito, and Sabia viruses to worry about, so you probably shouldn’t plan on getting bitten by a rat anywhere in South America.
Monkey malaria
In April’s issue of Future Microbiology , Dr Thomas McCutchan aired his fears that monkey malaria had crossed into humans. Malaria is responsible for over 300 million infections worldwide each year, and 1-3 million deaths, all of which are down to just four different forms of the malaria parasite. Plasmodium knowlesi would bring that total up to five, and worse still, while it is morphologically very similar to one of the relatively benign forms of malaria parasite, P. knowlesi requires immediate aggressive intervention to treat infected persons.
The Good News
Monkey malaria has only been detected in Borneo.
The Bad News
The similarities with other forms of the virus parasite mean that monkey malaria is probably widely unreported. To make matters worse, doctors are unlikely to diagnose you correctly until it’s too late.
Should you be worried?
If you’re in South East Asia you should avoid monkeys. And mosquitos. And given the avian flu menace, you should probably avoid birds too. In fact, just avoid South East Asia altogether.
Hand, Foot and Mouth Virus
Reuters recently reported on the ongoing outbreak of hand, foot and mouth virus in China’s schoolchildren. The enterovirus responsible is common in China, where outbreaks occur annually. This year however, a particularly virulent strain has taken hold, leading to high fever, paralysis and viral meningitis. So far 26 children have died, and a number of kindergartens have been closed to halt the spread of the virus.
The Good News
Most of the fatalities were seen in children under 5, so if you’re old enough to be reading this you’re probably safe.
The Bad News
Your kids aren’t. And who’s to say the next strain won’t attack adults?
Should you be worried?
Generally speaking, small children are germ factories and should be avoided at all costs. If you’ve already been living by that principle, you can award yourself 100 points for your foresight. If you can’t avoid small children, you probably have enough to worry about already.
Entry Filed under: General
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6 Comments
1. coracle | May 25th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Is the sciencepunk unwell? What’s going on with this:
The similarities with other forms of the virus mean that monkey malaria is probably widely unreported.
Surely the sciencepunk knows that plasmodia are eukaryotes?
2. Frank the SciencePunk | May 25th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Dammit, I always fuck up when it comes to malaria!
3. sana | May 26th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Looks like the safest thing in the world ignorance.
4. Jo Problems | July 3rd, 2008 at 5:58 am
I’m coming late to the party, having only stumbled upon your blog just now, but the cause for concern in rodent borne haemorrhagic fevers is that they are actually mostly transmitted through rodent urine. The virus (in the case of Junin and Lassa Fever, for example) is fairly hardy in the medium, and so when particles of dried rodent urine became aeresolized in the process of say, sweeping a floor, individuals became infected. Because of this, the mere presence of rodents in a living or working space is a significant risk factor.
These viruses are hardly specific to South America. The Sin Nombre virus (carried by deer mice) killed several young previously healthy adults in southwestern United States in the early 90’s and Lassa Fever which you mentioned is primarily found is West Africa.
Further cause for concern on the haemorrhagic virus front is a recent report in this month’s EID showing that the infection rates for travelers to Asia and Oceania were much higher for Dengue Fever than Malaria. (DHF is transmitted by mosquitoes rather than rodents, however.), even in Thailand where Malaria is endemic.
5. Frank the SciencePunk | July 3rd, 2008 at 9:43 am
There is something deeply disturbing about a virus whose name translates as “without name”.
6. Jo Problems | July 3rd, 2008 at 5:14 pm
The naming was largely political. While most viruses of the sort are named after the locale of the first outbreak (Marburg in Marburg, Germany, Junin by the Junin River in South America, etc.) Sin Nombre managed to break out in an area named in memory of a massacre of indigenous peoples. As such, there was more than a little sensitivity about naming the new virus (which emerged on a Navajo reservation, and was affected by good ol’ American racism pretty much right off the bat) after the location.
Since there was a team of scientists from multiple agencies working on the case, naming it after the founder was discarded as well.
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