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Researchers at the Medway School of Pharmacy in the UK isolated the Lloviu virus. It is a pathogen from the filovirus family, which includes Ebola and Marburg viruses. Both pathogens cause severe infectious diseases with a high mortality rate, which is why Lloviu has been under the surveillance of virologists and health organizations for years. There is a high probability that it will spread to humans in the coming years and reveal an epidemic potential.
- Lloviu was first detected in Spain in 2002. The virus was present in the body of dead bats found in the Cueva del Lloviu cave in the province of Asturias
- It is a pathogen from the Ebola and Marburg family of viruses that are under constant surveillance by the World Health Organization (WHO). These viruses could trigger another pandemic
- Isolating Lloviu can help develop an effective vaccine for the virus. This is very important because the pathogen is not affected by the Ebola vaccine
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
The new virus comes from bats
The Lloviu virus was first identified in Schreiber bats in Spain in 2002. It was discovered in dead bats in the Cueva del Lloviu cave in the province of Asturias. Soon after, it was also found in other caves in Spain, as well as in France and Portugal. At that time, however, no pathogenicity of Lloviu was found.
In 2013, 2016 and 2017, the virus spread among bats in Hungary. Some animals later found dead showed symptoms hemorrhagic fever.
Lloviu can spread to people
Although the virus has been known to researchers for years, it has only now been possible to isolate it for research. Researchers at the Medway School of Pharmacy in the UK estimate that Lloviu has the potential to both infect (zoonotic) human cells and replicate. The studies also revealed a lack of antibody cross-reactivity between Lloviu and the Ebola virus. This means that an existing Ebola vaccine may not protect you against the newly isolated virus.
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Dr. Scott of the VPU, member of the team led by Dr. Gabora Kemenesi, stated that research on the Lloviu virus is a priority today. “It is very important that we know more about the distribution of this virus and that we conduct research in this area to assess the risk and ensure that we are prepared for possible epidemics and pandemics,” he said.
Scientists emphasize that today we still know very little about this group of viruses. Little is known about their characteristics, transferability or pathogenicity. Scientists have not yet characterized their host group. Research in this area is ongoing, and scientists set themselves the goal of, inter alia, risk assessment of the possible transmission of viruses such as Lloviu to humans.
This is especially important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is considered the flagship case of zoonotic disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that such diseases constitute a significant proportion of all newly diagnosed infectious diseases, as well as many known for years.
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The virus belongs to the family of lethal pathogens
Lloviu is the third, next to Marbung and Ravn viruses, pathogen of the filovirus family to be isolated from bats and the first to be discovered in Europe, not in Africa.
The best known filovirus pathogens are Ebola and Marburg. The first of them, detected in the 70s in what was then Zaire (today’s Democratic Republic of Congo) and in Sudan, causes a severe infectious disease from the group of hemorrhagic fever. The prognosis after infection is very bad – up to 90 percent die because of bleeding. patients.
Haemorrhagic fever is also caused by the Marburg virus, which was first detected in 1967 in German Marburg and Frankfurt am Main. Marburg’s disease was initially considered less serious than Ebolabecause the mortality rate from the first known outbreaks was “only” 22%. However, subsequent infections significantly modified the average mortality and finally it was set at as much as 82%. There are known outbreaks of infection in which everyone infected with the Marburg virus died.
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