Researchers discover an extremely deadly virus -Lujo

[Treyfish]

Lujo agent

14.09.2009​

Updated at 14:47 | 14.09.2009
SAN FRANCISCO - Researchers from South Africa and the U.S. have discovered a new extremely deadly virus, the causative agent of disease similar to Ebola. The virus is fatal in 80 percent of cases.

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That said, the South African doctor Nivesh Sewlall at the presentation of a study at a conference in San Francisco. The virus first appeared in September 2008 during a trip leader in Lusaka in Zambia, which was treated at a hospital in Johannesburg in South Africa. Because of the two cities of the pathogens was called Lujo.

Exactly how the virus is transmitted, according to the researchers, is still unclear. The condition of the first patient deteriorated rapidly in hospital, she just died like three employees of the hospital had cared for them. People who stayed without the mask in the vicinity of the patients, but not stuck.

Transfusion

The researchers therefore assume that the virus can take place through contact with blood or body fluids transmitted through the air. An infected nurse also survived, she was treated with antiviral drugs such as ribavirin, which also is used for hepatitis C and B. The woman recovered, but only about a year after the infection again completely.

​

The virus was from the South African Institute for Infectious Diseases and the U.S. health authorities investigated. It is still unclear, which is transmitted from the host animal pathogens. The U.S. investigators suspect that the virus might be spread by contact with Rattenexkrementen.

Organ failure

Initial symptoms of severe viral disease are fever, extreme muscle pain and rash. In the course of the disease, diarrhea, and organ failure occur, especially the liver added.

The Lujo-like virus was the causative agent of Ebola and Lassa fever that occurred in 1969 in Nigeria, classified as a new arena virus. All three belong to the so-called hemorrhagic fevers that are associated with severe internal bleeding and tissue damage.

(SDA)​

(SDA) :tiphat:http://translate.google.com/transla...es-virus--128539&sl=auto&tl=en&history_state0=

 

[alert]

Re: Researchers discover an extremely deadly virus -Lujo

Today is the one year anniversary of Cecelia VanDeventer's death in that Moringisde Medi-Clinic in Johannesburg, South Africa (and the likely reason for the appearance of that article now). We still know very little about that virus, including its natural host, and even its geographic region (Ms. VanDeventer travelled extensively in the two weeks before she took ill). The virus has not been detected anywhere except the five individuals in that outbreak. We really don't know how big a bullet we might have dodged on this one. If the virus managed to infect and kill a cleaning lady at that hospital, it may have been fairly transmissible. Fortunately, no other cases of this virus beyond the five in the cluster have occurred. Hopefully, this cluster was caused by a mutation of a milder/harmless virus, and the highly pathogenic virus does not exist in nature.

I only shudder to think what would have happened if this had happened today. They would have likely suspected Pandemic H1N1 in the first few patients, and they might not have been able to control this outbreak.

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Researchers discover an extremely deadly virus -Lujo

More here:
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=107087&highlight=lujo

 

[alert]

Re: Researchers discover an extremely deadly virus -Lujo

The woman recovered, but only about a year after the infection again completely.

I suspect this is a bad translation. Do they mean to say that a year later, she still hasn't fully returned to normal? I know it is unlikely she was re-infected or suffered a relapse as the translation seems to indicate, because the authorities waited weeks to release her from quarantine until they were sure all tests for the virus were negative.

 

[alert]

Re: Researchers discover an extremely deadly virus -Lujo

Here is a better version of the article. The red text was the disputed part above:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=axwmIORUqpHE

Deadly Bleeding Virus, Previously Unknown, Identified in Study

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By Simeon Bennett and Tom Randall

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- 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 the course of nine days caused rash, fever, muscle pain, diarrhea, 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 today.

Lujo appears more dangerous than other arenaviruses and related hemorrhagic fever syndromes, with the exception of Ebola and Marburg, which have similar fatality rates of about 80 percent. Although outbreaks of illness from these viruses have been sporadic and not widespread, the World Health Organization has said population growth into remote areas and urbanization have led to new diseases emerging more quickly in recent years.

?It wasn?t the outer jungle, this was suburban Lusaka,? said Sewlall, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Morningside, in an interview in San Francisco. ?There are parts of Central Park that are more rural,? he said, referring to the landmark in New York.

Scientists don?t know where the pathogen came from, though humans usually catch other arenaviruses such as Lassa fever by inhaling dust contaminated with rodent droppings, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Human-to-human infections may occur through contact with bodily fluids or open skin cuts, the CDC said.

First Case

The first case of Lujo virus was a critically ill tourist guide and polo player in Lusaka, Zambia, who was airlifted to Johannesburg, South Africa, for treatment in September last year, according to the CDC. The Lujo virus is named after Lusaka and Johannesburg, where it was first detected.

The first patient died, as did three health-care workers who treated her. A fifth person, a nurse who worked with Sewlall in the hospital and treated one of the secondary cases, also caught the virus but survived after a barrage of treatments including the antiviral drug ribavirin. The patient took almost a year before she was able to return to work.

After the first few cases, the hospital staff was taking extra precautions: wearing protective clothing and checking their temperatures twice a day. That didn?t stop the second nurse from catching the disease. At one point, Sewlall himself developed a fever, around midnight after caring for the dying patients.

?Hardest Three Hours?

?It was one of the hardest three hours of my life,? waiting for the laboratory results to determine whether he, too, had caught the virus, Sewlall said. The results came back negative.

The research was presented at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in San Francisco today.

There are about 20 known arenaviruses carried by rats, and only five show symptoms in humans, Sewlall said. Most arenaviruses don?t sicken their rodent hosts.

The virus was genetically identified as an entirely new arenavirus with the help of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa and disease sleuth W. Ian Lipkin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University?s Mailman School of Public Health in New York. Lipkin was first to identify West Nile Virus in the U.S.

To contact the reporter on this story: Simeon Bennett in Singapore at sbennett9@bloomberg.net; Tom Randall in San Francisco at trandall6@bloomberg.net.