Good News: It Isn't Airborne. Bad News: New Trans-Species Virus From Rats Kills 80% of Infected Humans

News Type: Event — Seeded on Tue Sep 15, 2009 9:51 AM EDT

Article Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

science, south-africa, virus, urban, rats, ebola, johannesburg, marburg, lujo, arenavirus

A PREVIOUSLY unknown virus that killed four of the five people it struck in an outbreak in South Africa last year has been identified as part of a family of viruses humans can catch from rats.

The virus, named Lujo, is an arenavirus that over nine days caused rash, fever, muscle pain, diarrhoea, severe bleeding, vomiting, organ failure and death, said Nivesh Sewlall, who treated the first patient at Johannesburg's Morningside MediClinic Hospital. He reported the findings at an infectious disease conference in San Francisco yesterday.

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{"commentId":9489698,"authorDomain":"killfile"}

Killfile

There's no information in the article on details like the incubation period of the bug and stuff like that. No airborne vector means it's pretty unlikely to end up burning through New York like some kind of Stephen King novel come to life but it does have the potential to do a lot of damage, particularly in developing countries with more primordial burial traditions.

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#1 - Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:22 AM EDT

{"commentId":9489719,"authorDomain":"gabby3239"}

renard

Health insurance or the emergency room, a pandemic is coming to a hospital near us pretty soon

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#2 - Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:24 AM EDT

{"commentId":9490570,"authorDomain":"killfile"}

Killfile

Probably not from this. It's doesn't sound like it's much more contagious than HIV but it's probably got an incubation period round-abouts a week or so. As such, you probably won't see this become a pandemic illness.

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#2.1 - Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:56 AM EDT

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Good News: It Isn't Airborne. Bad News: New Trans-Species Virus From Rats Kills 80% of Infected Humans

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