Work

Expanded Host Diversity and Geographic Distribution of Hantaviruses in Sub-Saharan Africa

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: The recent discovery of hantaviruses in shrews and bats in West Africa suggests that other genetically distinct hantaviruses exist in East Africa. Genetic and phylogenetic analyses of newfound hantaviruses, detected in archival tissues from the Geata mouse shrew (Myosorex geata) and Kilimanjaro mouse shrew ( Myosorex zinki) captured in Tanzania, expands the host diversity and geographic distribution of hantaviruses and suggests that ancestral shrews and/or bats may have served as the original mammalian hosts of primordial hantaviruses.

Source: Journal of Virology

DOI: 10.1128/jvi.00285-14

Authors: Hae Ji Kang, William T. Stanley, Jacob A. Esselstyn, Se Hun Gu, Richard Yanagihara

Institutions: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Field Museum of Natural History, Louisiana State University

Language: English

Topic: Viral Infections and Vectors

Subfield: Infectious Diseases

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

Open Access status: green