Essay On Lyssavirus

Wolves are carriers of the lupine parvovirus (LPV), and it is suggested that the virus is responsible for lycanthropy. LPV infected wolves are resistant to environmental trauma, including digestive enzymes, making it much easier to spread through contaminated food and water sources. Wolves infect humans through biting and after infection, there is a period of high fever, chills and other flu-like symptoms, and the victim is likely to experience extreme dehydration and itching as their metabolism and heart rate increase (Hugo Pecos and Robert Lomax

These vectors become infected via blood meals from an infected host which includes, but is not limited to, ground squirrels, wild mice, wood rats, marmots, deer, coyotes, and sheep. Most human cases occur between the months of March and September, with April through July being the peak months. The virus can be transmitted from person-to-person through blood transfusions and mother-to-infant in pregnant women. Laboratory transmission cases have also been reported. Extended viremia observed in both humans and rodents is attributed to the virus situating itself within red blood cells, which enables the viral particles to evade an immediate immune response. In the United States this virus is included on the list of agents screened prior to bone marrow

Rabies might have been the oldest disease to mankind (A Short History of Rabies). According “Rabies - A Layman's Explanation” by Mike Pedde. Pedde reported that rabies was previously well known as “arctic madness or Eslimo sled dog disease” because the European explorers, with a pack of sled dogs that were traveling to northern Canada. It

Variola virus is the most notorious member of this genus and is differentiated into two phenotypic subtypes based on its case fatality. The variola major subtype produces a generalized rash that progresses from the papular to vesicular, and finally to pustular stages, with mortality higher than 30% in unvaccinated individuals. On the other hand, the variola minor subtype has a mortality rate of 1%.

Ophidian paramyxovirus is a virus that affects snakes, particularly in the family Viperidae; it compromises the immune system, which can lead to mortality through secondary bacterial infections. This negative-sense, single-stranded RNA virus infects the respiratory system and can be transmitted through feces, respiratory tract secretions, fomites, or vectors such as mites; as such, in captivity, good husbandry practices are critical to prevent transmission of this disease.

Virologic surveillance studies in different populations of bats have suggested that they are probable reservoirs for this novel coronavirus. Furthermore, evidence from several sources implicates dromedary camels as natural hosts and the likely source of zoonotic transmission of MERS-CoV. In camels, MERS-CoV infection has a benign course. However, each of the infected camels shed large quantities of virus from the upper respiratory tract. Infectious viral particles were detected in nasal secretions up to 7 days and viral RNA up to 35 days post inoculation. This pattern of shedding and propensity for the upper respiratory tract infection in dromedary camels may help explain the lack of systemic illness among infected camels. It also may help explain the means of camel-to-camel and camel-to-human transmission. Furthermore, studies in camels failed to show any correlation between RNA copies and levels of neutralizing antibodies suggesting limited immune protection and potential for reinfection despite previous exposure. A prospective study of a dromedary camel herd during the 2013-14 calving season showed MERS-CoV infected both calves and adults. However, MERS-CoV virus was detected more frequently in young animals (4 years of age). Viral detection peaked between the months of November and January and declined between March and

The virus is described to be ovoid in shape with surface proteins, and targets cells in respiratory and nervous system. There were several points made here that I found to be quite accurate. For example, the virus is from recombinant bat and pig DNA, and has turned zoonotic. This is not uncommon among viruses, especially those that have to do with bats. It was also mentioned that the scientists working on the cases were having difficulty growing the virus in cells without the cells dying.

The rabies virus, a zoonotic disease that can be transferred from animals to humans through the saliva or brain tissue of an infected animals into a cut or lesion of a human. It has also been reported that humans were able to contract the virus through the process of having cornea and organ transplants. Once a human has been infected with the virus, it effects the nervous system by traveling through the nerves to the

and S (for short). The S segment is the more abundant of the two as it codes for

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, also referred to as MERS-CoV, is a novel coronavirus that emerged in April 2012 in Saudi Arabia. The coronavirus causes severe repertory illness in humans in which nearly half of the reported cases have been fatal. Middle East Respiratory MERS-CoV has “also been shown to infect a range of human, primate, porcine, and bat cell lines” (Emergence of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome).

sequencing to sequence two miRNA libraries prepared from porcine kidney 15 (PK-15) cells under normal

Canine parvovirus (CPV) is a parvovirus that infects dogs, originally emerged in the 1970s as a pathogen for domestic dogs and resulted in a pandemic in 1978 (1,3). Though feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) is not a focus of the paper, it is important to know that it is a parvovirus that infects cats and other carnivore hosts but excludes dogs (1,3). The two parvoviruses, FPV and CPV, are 99% similar in nucleotides. Early on, it was believed that CPV was the result of a direct transfer of FPV from domestic cats to domestic dogs (3). However, more recent findings have found that CPV can infect wild carnivores in the wilds, including raccoons, and transfer between the

Rabies infection in humans is still a major public health problem all over the world (Beard, 2001; Pal et al.,2013). About 98% of the human rabies cases occur in developing countries that possess large number of dogs, many of which are strays (WHO, 2004). This situation occurs because dog rabies is endemic with dog-to-dog transmission of the infection, which is associated with an ongoing threat to humans due to dog bites. Unfortunately, children share a disproportionately high burden of the disease (Blanton et al., 2010). Estimates of human mortality due to endemic canine rabies in Asia and Africa annually exceed 30,000 and 23,000, respectively. The annual cost of rabies in Africa and Asia was estimated at 583.5 million USD most of which is due to cost of post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) (Knobel et al., 2005). 60%

Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a deadly new Corona designated virus believed to originate on the Arabian Peninsula (Zaki et al 2012). This virus now has verified cases outside of the Arabian Peninsula including Oman, Algeria, Austria, the United States of America, the UK, Bangladesh and Turkey (Abdel-Moneim 2014). The apparent ease with which this virus is transmitted, especially via zoonosis and the possibility of human-human transmission, highlights the need for research into a cure or vaccine for MERS-CoV. This research needs to determine methods through which the human body can maintain or produce antibodies within the blood serum of humans so as to fight off MERS-CoV. Alternately to this, research has been conducted into the origins of MERS-CoV and with the conflicting ideas of human-human transmission it may be more viable to eliminate the virus where the zoonotic transmission is occurring. With the current link between dromedary camels and MERS-CoV cases it is possible to develop procedures and policies which could eliminate the transmission via this means. Further study would most likely be required to develop similar procedures with, what is recognized as the main source of MERS-CoV, bats as these creatures naturally are no longer effected by the virus.

A number of studies have supported the theory that the virus had originally occurred in animals previous to human infections.5 The MERs-CoV virus is a type of coronavirus that has been known for infecting both birds and many species of mammals. These types of infections are commonly referred to as zoonotic diseases because the pathogens are able to be transferred from animals to humans. Zoonosis can happen with or without a vector in order to spread the infection. Although the exact origin of the MERs-CoV infections is unknown, there has been convincing research performed that has found related types of coronaviruses in bats and camels. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the coronavirus is found in multiple species and can cause respiratory illness and gastrointestinal upset.