Two years ago,
researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Madison discovered that the virus
which caused the common cold in humans was responsible for the deaths of wild
chimpanzees in Uganda. Now, researchers have discovered two more human
respiratory viruses among chimps in the same forest.
Between December
2016 and February 2017, the two viral outbreaks occurred within the same
community of chimpanzees, creating suspicion that they were caused by the same
pathogen. Although the presentation was the same and consistent with viral
infection of the respiratory tract, only one of the outbreaks was fatal. The
virus responsible for the lethal outbreak was metapneumovirus (MPV), while the
other group of chimps that were sick but did not suffer any deaths was infected
with parainfluenza 3.
In humans, MPV is
rarely lethal, showing that its effects were much stronger in chimps, and
though parainfluenza 3 did not cause any deaths, its mortality rate was much
higher amongst the chimps relative to humans. The high virulence of
parainfluenza 3 and the fact that it spread rapidly to nearly all the chimps
suggested that the chimps had no immunity against it and this may have been the
first time that humans transferred the virus across species. In fact, the viral
genome of parainfluenza 3 found in infected chimps nearly mirrors that of the
one found in humans.
While it is unclear
how the virus was transferred from human to chimp, the severity of the outbreak
has prompted government and conservation groups across the African continent to
implement practices such as the use of masks, quarantining before forest entry
and the use of hand sanitizers. As research Tony Goldberg summarizes, "All it takes is one
person unwittingly carrying a 'common cold' virus to spark a deadly outbreak in
apes."
-Riasoya Jodah
Read more at: <https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190122104547.htm>
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