Prospects for the Control of Bolivian Hemorrhagic Fever
Year: 1995
Type: article
Abstract: Bolivian hemorrhagic fever (BHF) was first identified in 1959 as a sporadic hemorrhagic illness in rural areas of Beni department Bolivia. Clusters of BHF patients were noted the same year and by 1962 BHF was recognized as a new epidemic infectious disease. In 1963 Machupo virus (a member of the family Arenaviridae) was first isolated from patients with acute hemorrhagic fever in San Joaquin Bolivia. Ecologic investigations established the rodent Calomys callosus which is indigenous to the disease-endemic region of northern Bolivia as the reservoir for Machupo virus. Machupo virus infection in C. callosus results in asymptomatic infection with shedding of virus in saliva urine and feces; 50% of experimentally infected C. callosus are chronically viremic and shed virus in their bodily excretions or secretions. Although the infectious dose of Machupo virus in humans is unknown exposed persons may become infected by inhaling virus shed in aerosolized secretions or excretions of infected rodents by eating food contaminated with rodent excreta or by direct contact of excreta with abraded skin or oropharyngeal mucous membranes. Reports of person-to-person transmission are uncommon; however hospital contact with a patient resulted in person-to-person spread of Machupo virus to nursing and pathology laboratory staff. In 1994 the fatal secondary infection of six family members in Magdalena from a single naturally acquired infection further suggested the potential for person-to-person transmission. (excerpt)
Source: Emerging infectious diseases
Language: English
Topic: Viral Infections and Vectors
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2084850779