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Results for “Filoviridae Infections”

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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Viral complications after transplantation.

All hospital patients are at risk of acquiring infections from visitors or staff members or by nosocomial transmission. Transplant patients have additional routes of acquisition which together represent the major source of infection. These are: reactivation of latent virus; transmission with the donor organ; and transmission by blood. A wide variety of viruses have been implicated, with the common feature that they establish either chronic or latent infection in the donor or recipient. The aim of this paper is to review the natural history, clinical features, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of each of these viral infections. A basic principle will be that the presence of specific antibodies in a donor or recipient before undergoing transplantation is a marker of latent virus within that individual. After transplantation, patients have impaired immune responses, thereby rendering serology unreliable for diagnostic purposes. Instead, methods which detect the virus directly in clinical material should be used.

Adenoviridae Infections↗
PubMed2003

Tropical dermatology: viral tropical diseases.

Viruses are important pathogens in tropical areas; most of them, especially the tropical hemorrhagic fevers, produce mucocutaneous manifestations. More than any other kind of pathogen, viruses have the possibility for being widespread, since they have a greater probability of mutation than do bacteria, can cross species barriers easily, and infect both human beings and animals in habitats with a great biodiversity. Tropical habitats also have been subject to major ecologic changes in the last few decades, exposing humans to direct contact with these viruses and allowing hemorrhagic fevers due to new emergent viruses such as flaviviruses, filoviruses, arenaviruses, and hantaviruses to become major threats to public health. The collapse of eradication programs in many countries, as well as population increases and ecologic modifications, have led to the spread of dengue and yellow fever to large portions of the world owing to the dissemination of vectors, especially mosquitoes, with broad ecologic ranges. Viruses previously restricted to some geographic areas, such as Rift Valley fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, West Nile fever, and monkeypox are now affecting new countries and populations. Other viruses such as herpes B infection often affect travelers and animal handlers in most parts of the world. Dermatologic lesions occur in all these diseases and can facilitate a rapid diagnosis, leading to control of the virus and helping prevent possible outbreaks.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Lessons from nosocomial viral haemorrhagic fever outbreaks.

The outbreak of Marburg haemorrhagic fever in Angola in 2004-2005 shows once again the devastating and rapid spread of viral haemorrhagic fevers in medical settings where hygiene practices are poorly applied or ignored. The legacy of years of war and poverty in Angola has resulted in very poor medical education and services. The initial high rate of infection among infants in Angola may have been related to poor hospital practices, possibly administration of vaccines. Though the outbreak in Angola was in a part of Africa not previously known to have filovirus infection, prior ecological modelling had predicted this location and many others. Prevention of future outbreaks will not be easy. The urgent need is dissemination of knowledge and the training, discipline and resources for good clinical practice. Educating the public to demand higher standards could be a powerful tool. Good practices are difficult to establish and maintain on the scale needed.

Angola↗
PubMed2002

Hemorrhagic fever viruses as biological weapons: medical and public health management.

OBJECTIVE: To develop consensus-based recommendations for measures to be taken by medical and public health professionals if hemorrhagic fever viruses (HFVs) are used as biological weapons against a civilian population. PARTICIPANTS: The Working Group on Civilian Biodefense included 26 representatives from academic medical centers, public health, military services, governmental agencies, and other emergency management institutions. EVIDENCE: MEDLINE was searched from January 1966 to January 2002. Retrieved references, relevant material published prior to 1966, and additional sources identified by participants were reviewed. CONSENSUS PROCESS: Three formal drafts of the statement that synthesized information obtained in the evidence-gathering process were reviewed by the working group. Each draft incorporated comments and judgments of the members. All members approved the final draft. CONCLUSIONS: Weapons disseminating a number of HFVs could cause an outbreak of an undifferentiated febrile illness 2 to 21 days later, associated with clinical manifestations that could include rash, hemorrhagic diathesis, and shock. The mode of transmission and clinical course would vary depending on the specific pathogen. Diagnosis may be delayed given clinicians' unfamiliarity with these diseases, heterogeneous clinical presentation within an infected cohort, and lack of widely available diagnostic tests. Initiation of ribavirin therapy in the early phases of illness may be useful in treatment of some of these viruses, although extensive experience is lacking. There are no licensed vaccines to treat the diseases caused by HFVs.

Aerosols↗
PubMed1996

Imported vector- and rodent-borne virus infections--an introduction.

Travel is a potent force in the emergence of virus infections. Migration of humans and animals has been the pathway for disseminating virus diseases throughout history. In recent years, dengue virus has been identified as the most important travel-related, vector-borne virus disease. Other vector-borne virus infections, such as sandfly fever, Rift Valley fever, chikungunya fever and Japanese encephalitis, have been diagnosed in travelers returning from endemic areas. Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever may not only be imported by infected live stock, but also by travelers. Of rodent-borne virus infections, Lassa fever has been diagnosed occasionally in travelers returning from endemic areas. The potential impact of imported filoviruses is currently discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Tissue factor initiation of disseminated intravascular coagulation in filovirus infection.

Filovirus infections in humans and primates cause intrinsic activation of the clotting cascade. Tissue factor, the normal activator of the clotting cascade, is released into the bloodstream from activated leukocytes and viral budding from infected cells. This release of tissue factor, a trans-membrane protein found in large amounts in cells preferred by filoviruses for replication, initiates the hemorrhagic complications characteristic of filovirus infection. These complications contribute to the high mortality rates of filovirus infections. Directing chemotheraputic measures at the release of tissue factor, which causes the hemorrhagic complications, will result in significant reductions of mortality rates in man and primates.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

The role of the Type I interferon response in the resistance of mice to filovirus infection.

Adult immunocompetent mice inoculated with Ebola (EBO) or Marburg (MBG) virus do not become ill. A suckling-mouse-passaged variant of EBO Zaire '76 ('mouse-adapted EBO-Z') causes rapidly lethal infection in adult mice after intraperitoneal (i.p.) inoculation, but does not cause apparent disease when inoculated subcutaneously (s.c.). A series of experiments showed that both forms of resistance to infection are mediated by the Type I interferon response. Mice lacking the cell-surface IFN-alpha/beta receptor died within a week after inoculation of EBO-Z '76, EBO Sudan, MBG Musoke or MBG Ravn, or after s.c. challenge with mouse-adapted EBO-Z. EBO Reston and EBO Ivory Coast did not cause illness, but immunized the mice against subsequent challenge with mouse-adapted EBO-Z. Normal adult mice treated with antibodies against murine IFN-alpha/beta could also be lethally infected with i.p.-inoculated EBO-Z '76 or EBO Sudan and with s.c.-inoculated mouse-adapted EBO-Z. Severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice became ill 3-4 weeks after inoculation with EBO-Z '76, EBO Sudan or MBG Ravn, but not the other viruses. Treatment with anti-IFN-alpha/beta antibodies markedly accelerated the course of EBO-Z '76 infection. Antibody treatment blocked the effect of a potent antiviral drug, 3-deazaneplanocin A, indicating that successful filovirus therapy may require the active participation of the Type I IFN response. Mice lacking an IFN-alpha/beta response resemble primates in their susceptibility to rapidly progressive, overwhelming filovirus infection. The outcome of filovirus transfer between animal species appears to be determined by interactions between the virus and the innate immune response.

Adenosine↗
PubMed2004

Potential mammalian filovirus reservoirs.

Ebola and Marburg viruses are maintained in unknown reservoir species; spillover into human populations results in occasional human cases or epidemics. We attempted to narrow the list of possibilities regarding the identity of those reservoir species. We made a series of explicit assumptions about the reservoir: it is a mammal; it supports persistent, largely asymptomatic filovirus infections; its range subsumes that of its associated filovirus; it has coevolved with the virus; it is of small body size; and it is not a species that is commensal with humans. Under these assumptions, we developed priority lists of mammal clades that coincide distributionally with filovirus outbreak distributions and compared these lists with those mammal taxa that have been tested for filovirus infection in previous epidemiologic studies. Studying the remainder of these taxa may be a fruitful avenue for pursuing the identity of natural reservoirs of filoviruses.

Africa↗
PubMed2000

Emerging zoonoses: crossing the species barrier.

The ability of infectious disease agents to cross the species barrier has long been recognised for many zoonotic diseases. New viral zoonotic diseases, such as acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), caused by human immunodeficiency viruses 1 or 2, emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, and have become established in the human population. Influenza virus continues to find new ways to move from avian species into humans. The filoviruses and the newer paramyxoviruses, Hendra and Nipah, highlight the increasing proclivity of some animal viral agents to infect human populations with devastating results. A previously unknown transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has emerged in cattle in Europe and spread to humans as well as other animal species. A novel toxicosis, caused by Pfiesteria spp. dinoflagellates, has become a secondary problem in some areas where large fish kills have occurred. The increasing proximity of human and animal populations has led to the emergence of, or increase in, bacterial zoonoses such as plague, leptospirosis and ehrlichiosis. The factors which influence the ability of each infectious agent to effectively across the species barrier and infect new cells and populations are poorly understood. However, for all of these diseases, the underlying theme is the growth of the human population, the mobility of that population, and the efforts expended to keep that population nourished.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Filoviruses and the balance of innate, adaptive, and inflammatory responses.

The Filoviruses Marburg virus and Ebola virus are among the deadliest of human pathogens, causing fulminant hemorrhagic fevers typified by overmatched specific immune responses and profuse inflammatory responses. Keys to both vaccination and treatment may reside, first, in the understanding of immune dysfunctions that parallel Filoviral disease and, second, in devising ways to redirect and restore normal immune function as well as to mitigate inflammation. Here, we describe how Filoviral infections may subvert innate immune responses through perturbances of dendritic cells and neutrophils, with particular emphasis on the downstream effects on adaptive immunity and inflammation. We suggest that pivotal events may be subject to therapeutic intervention as Filoviruses encounter immune processes.

Dendritic Cells↗