Duvenhage virus 4212710 188315397 2008-02-01T04:23:07Z 203.26.122.8 2007 fatality {{Taxobox <!-- Color parameter is not needed -- automatically assigned --> | name = ''{{PAGENAME}}'' | virus_group = v | ordo = ''[[Mononegavirales]]'' | familia = ''[[Rhabdoviridae]]'' | genus = ''[[Lyssavirus]]'' | species = '''''{{PAGENAME}}''''' }} '''Duvenhage virus''' is a member of the [[lyssavirus]] genus which also contains [[rabies virus]]. The [[virus]] was discovered in 1970 when a [[South Africa]]n farmer (after whom the virus is named) died of a rabies-like [[encephalitis|encephalitic illness]] after being bitten by a [[bat]] <ref>Tignor, GH, Murphy, FA, Clark, HF ''et al''. (1977). Duvenhage virus: morphological, biochemical, histopathological and antigenic relationships to the rabies serogroup. ''Journal of General Virology''. '''37''':595&ndash;611</ref>. In 2006, Duvenhage virus claimed a second victim when a man was scratched by a bat in [[North West Province]], South Africa, 80 km from the 1970 infection <ref name=Paweska>[http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no12/06-0764.htm Paweska, JT, Blumberg, LH, Liebenberg, C ''et al''. (2006). Fatal human infection with rabies-related Duvenhage virus, South Africa. ''Emerging Infectious Diseases''. '''12''']</ref>. He developed a rabies-like illness 27 days later and died 14 days after the onset of illness. A 34 year old woman who died in Amsterdam on December 8, 2007 was the third recorded fatality. She had been scratched on the nose by a small bat while travelling through Kenya in October 2007 and was admitted to hospital four weeks later with rabies-like symtpoms. [[Microbat]]s are believed to be the natural reservoir of Duvenhage virus. It has been isolated twice from insectivorous bats, in 1981 from ''Miniopterus schreibersi'' and in 1986 from ''Nycteris thebaica'' <ref name=Paweska>[http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no12/06-0764.htm Paweska, JT, Blumberg, LH, Liebenberg, C ''et al''. (2006). Fatal human infection with rabies-related Duvenhage virus, South Africa. ''Emerging Infectious Diseases''. '''12''']</ref>, and is closely related to another bat-associated lyssavirus endemic to [[Africa]], [[Lagos bat virus]]. ==References== {{reflist}} {{Viral diseases}} [[Category:Mononegavirales]] {{virus-stub}}