Nipah Virus

[Anne]

Nipah virus fact sheet (revised in July 2009)

http://www.who.int/wer/2010/wer8508.pdf

[alert]

Re: New Virus Discovered

We seem to have two different stories mashed together in this thread. LCMV is an arenavirus, hence the discussion of mice in post #2 of this thread. Arenaviruses are primarily spread by mice. The first post in this thread mentions the discovery of a novel arenavirus. Arenaviruses exist worldwide. LCMV has been found in the United States, and the one in post #1 was from Australia from 2007.

Nipah virus is NOT an arenavirus. It is a paramyxovirus, I believe, and its natural hosts are bats, as the link in post #3 indicates. Nipah virus is found primarily in Asia, has never been reported from Australia or the US, and seems to have nothing to do with the 2007 cluster.

That last post does contain the important information that the 2001 outbreak in Siliguri, India, was in fact due to Nipah virus. At the time, the diagnosis was "atypical measles" (measles also happens to be a paramyxovirus), but I wondered about Nipah. A ProMED post about that situation is here (http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?...AIL_ID:X,13893); follow the links at the bottom of that post for more information.

And this thread seems to be in the wrong place then. Perhaps the last post belongs on its own in a thread in the Nipah forum (as it contains important information about Nipah virus), but the first two belong elsewhere, as they report the discovery of a novel arenavirus.

Thank you to the moderator who is moving and renaming the threads.