Simian virus Bin human cases has a “high risk of mortality”. The Herpesvirus which “infects some primates can infect humans through bites or scratches by a monkey carrying the pathogen”. If the virus initially causes “local, flu-like symptoms” that can be treated with antiviral drugs, “in at least half of the cases the infection reaches the brain and when this happens death is highly probable”. Arnaldo Caruso, president of the Italian Society of Virology (Siv-Isv), reported for Adnkronos Salute on the Herpesvirus simiae which affected a 37-year-old man attacked during an excursion in a park in Hong Kong.
“Certainly – the expert stated – we are not talking about an epidemic danger, much less a pandemic”. However, it is “important to control the spread of the infection among monkeys” and “to know – he warns – that humans can also get sick if accidentally injured by an infected monkey”.
The simian virus B “is a herpetic virus”, explains Caruso, professor of microbiology and clinical microbiology at the University of Brescia and director of the microbiology laboratory of the Asst Spedali Civili. “Herpes viruses are very widespread – he recalls – while this virus in particular is limited to some monkeys, highlighted for the first time in the first decades of the last century in vervet monkeys and therefore also called 'vervet monkey' virus. For a long time it was more what more than a scientific curiosity. In the past, in fact – says the specialist – some laboratory workers who had to deal with monkeys for their experiments, working directly with these animals or handling their tissues or biological materials, happened to become infected. It was then understood that a scratch or bite from a monkey carrying this virus, or contact with its infected fluid, perhaps through an accidental cut, could make humans ill. And the infection could be serious, quickly fatal if it involved the central nervous system”.
“We therefore began to carry out analyzes on the monkeys that were imported for research and this danger, at the laboratory level or in any case of animals in captivity – underlines Caruso – was completely averted. However, the problem of 'wild' monkeys remained , freely in nature”.
“The risk of transmission to humans is growing”
In recent years something has changed. “It is known that in the USA, for example in Florida – Caruso points out – there are colonies of monkeys carrying this virus which seems to be spreading within the colonies themselves. Even the monkeys, in fact, by biting each other or through mutual contact, can transmit the B virus to each other”. And then there is the human case in Hong Kong, the first recorded by the autonomous territory in Southeast China.
All warning signs, because if “from a practical point of view today it seems difficult for a monkey to be able to have such contact with humans as to infect him, certainly – warns the expert – if this virus continues to spread among animals, and these animals come into contact with humans, the risk of transmission to humans increases. It is therefore necessary to control the infection within monkey populations and evaluate the colonies.”
#Monkey #virus #transmitted #humans
