Emerging viral diseases - workshop

what are the three reasons for diseases to be notifiable?

• international trade

• animal health and welfare

• public health

how do notifiable diseases affect trade?

lead to trade restrictions

what are some of the notifiable diseases to APHA?

• rabies virus

• rabies-related lyssaviruses

• influenza virus

• west nile virus

• rift valley fever virus

what is the host for rabies related lysaaviruses?

bats

which animals are associated with rift valley fever virus?

mosquitos

what are the notifiable organisms?

• hanta virus - rodents

• ebola virus - bats

• marburg - bats

• lassa virus - rodents

how are notifiable organisms notified?

by diagnostics labs or GPs

what does the International Health Regulations (2005) require?

member states to notify WHO of events or urgent and international importance instead of disease specific notifications

how has the detection of new diseases been improved?

by DNA sequencing

do viruses impact their hosts?

viruses are well adapted to their reservoir hosts and display little or no clinical disease in these species

what is the structure of dog rabies?

non-segmented, negative single stranded RNA lyssavirus within the rhabdovirus family

what are the clinical signs of rabies in dogs?

• fear of water

• aggression

• hypersensitive

• manic behaviour

• reduced fear

• excess salivation

• licking

• paralysis

what are the types of bat lyssaviruses?

• European Bat lyssavirus 1

• European Bat lyssavirus 2

• Lagos bat virus

• Duvenhage virus

• Australian bat lyssavirus

where do Lagos bat virus and Duvenhage virus come from?

Africa

who is the host for Nipah, hendra and ebola virus?

bats

why are bats good reservoir hosts?

their immune system differ from most mammals and so more tolerant of infections

what are the three rodent viral zoonoses?

-          Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus

-          Lassavirus – in AFRICA

-          Hantavirus

what is the structure of hantavirus?

group of single stranded, enveloped, negative sense RNA viruses

how are humans infected with hantavirus from rodents?

when fresh rodent urine, droppings or nesting materials are stirred up, tiny droplets containing the virus get into the air and cause airborne transmission

what do you do if viral zoonoses are suspected?

nasal/throat swab and PCR, take sample and sequence them and compare to known virus