A previously unknown reovirus of bat origin is associated with an acute respiratory disease in humans

Abstract

Respiratory infections constitute the most widespread human infectious disease, and a substantial proportion of them are caused by unknown etiological agents. Reoviruses (respiratory enteric orphan viruses) were first isolated from humans in the early 1950s and so named because they were not associated with any known disease. Here, we report a previously unknown reovirus (named ''Melaka virus'') isolated from a 39-year-old male patient in Melaka, Malaysia, who was suffering from high fever and acute respiratory disease at the time of virus isolation. Two of his family members developed similar symptoms Ϸ1 week later and had serological evidence of infection with the same virus. Epidemiological tracing revealed that the family was exposed to a bat in the house Ϸ1 week before the onset of the father's clinical symptoms. Genome sequence analysis indicated a close genetic relationship between Melaka virus and Pulau virus, a reovirus isolated in 1999 from fruit bats in Tioman Island, Malaysia. Screening of sera collected from human volunteers on the island revealed that 14 of 109 (13%) were positive for both Pulau and Melaka viruses. This is the first report of an orthoreovirus in association with acute human respiratory diseases. Melaka virus is serologically not related to the different types of mammalian reoviruses that were known to infect humans asymptomatically. These data indicate that batborne reoviruses can be transmitted to and cause clinical diseases in humans.respiratory infection ͉ zoonosis ͉ human-to-human transmission ͉ orthoreovirus ͉ Pulau virus

Pteropine orthoreovirus: An important emerging virus causing infectious disease in the tropics?

“…The bat samples includes heart blood, urine, lung specimens, intestinal specimens, and salivary swabs. In the seven isolates recovered from human samples, three cases were known to have been exposed to fruit bats, while the other four cases made no specific mention of exposure to bats, though there was history of visits to places with the potential presence of fruit bats [4][5][6][7][8][9]. With this backdrop, it appears highly likely that fruit bats (Pteropus spp.…”

“…Though there are phylogenetic associations between isolates of PRV from bats and isolates from humans, the link and mode of transmission of PRV from bats to humans are yet to be established. In cases where there was exposure to bats, it is not known if PRV was spread through respiratory droplets or fecal contents, as PRV was found in both lungs and intestinal contents of bats [4,10,11].…”

Detection of polyoma and corona viruses in bats of Canada

“…For other viruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (Lau et al, 2005), Marburg (Towner et al, 2007) and Ebola (Leroy et al, 2005), viruses similar to those causing disease in people have been isolated from or detected in bats. Melaka, a virus similar to Tioman virus previously isolated from bats (Chua et al, 2007), was recovered from an IP: 35.161.254.100…”

Aetiology of Acute Respiratory Infections in Children under Five Years in Nakuru, Kenya

“…There is a second line of agents, including rhinoviruses and other picornaviruses, and coronaviruses, that are relatively common, but have previously been thought of as typically associated with milder upper respiratory tract illness [3]. Other viruses that have been associated with respiratory infections are Mimivirus and Mossman virus [4], Reovirus, Melaka virus [5,6], the Herpesviruses family, including Human herpes virus type 6, Cytomegalovirus, Varicella-zoster virus, Epstein-Barr virus, and the Herpes simplex viruses, particularly in the immunocompromised [7], Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) [8], ARS-associated coronavirus [9], Human bocavirus [10] and two Human polyomaviruses: KI (KIPyV) 24 and WU virus (WUPyV) [11]. These viruses comprise the core group of common childhood respiratory pathogens, as well as those that may only occasionally cause illness.…”