| Duvenhage virus | |
|---|---|
Virus classification  | |
| (unranked): | Virus |
| Realm: | Riboviria |
| Kingdom: | Orthornavirae |
| Phylum: | Negarnaviricota |
| Class: | Monjiviricetes |
| Order: | Mononegavirales |
| Family: | Rhabdoviridae |
| Genus: | Lyssavirus |
| Species: | Lyssavirus duvenhage |
| Synonyms [1] [2] | |
| |
Duvenhage virus (DUVV) is a member of the genus Lyssavirus , which also contains the rabies virus. The virus was discovered in 1970, when a South African farmer (after whom the virus is named) died of a rabies-like encephalitic illness, after being bitten by a bat. [3] In 2006, Duvenhage virus killed a second person, when a man was scratched by a bat in North West Province, South Africa, 80 km from the 1970 infection. [4] He developed a rabies-like illness 27 days after the bat encounter, and died 14 days after the onset of illness. A 34-year-old woman who died in Amsterdam on December 8, 2007, was the third recorded fatality. She had been scratched on the nose by a small bat while travelling through Kenya in October 2007, and was admitted to hospital four weeks later with rabies-like symptoms. [5]
Microbats are believed to be the natural reservoir of Duvenhage virus. It has been isolated twice from insectivorous bats, in 1981 from Miniopterus schreibersi , and in 1986 from Nycteris thebaica , [4] and the virus is closely related to another bat-associated lyssavirus endemic to Africa, Lagos bat virus.
