Historical Perspectives on Flavivirus Research

Abstract

The flaviviruses are small single-stranded RNA viruses that are typically transmitted by mosquito or tick vectors. These “arboviruses” are found around the world and account for a significant number of cases of human disease. The flaviviruses cause diseases ranging from mild or sub-clinical infections to lethal hemorrhagic fever or encephalitis. In many cases, survivors of neurologic flavivirus infections suffer long-term debilitating sequelae. Much like the emergence of West Nile virus in the United States in 1999, the recent emergence of Zika virus in the Americas has significantly increased the awareness of mosquito-borne viruses. The diseases caused by several flaviviruses have been recognized for decades, if not centuries. However, there is still a lot that is unknown about the flaviviruses as the recent experience with Zika virus has taught us. The objective of this review is to provide a general overview and some historical perspective on several flaviviruses that cause significant human disease. In addition, available medical countermeasures and significant gaps in our understanding of flavivirus biology are also discussed.

Cryo-EM Studies of Virus-Antibody Immune Complexes

“…2A, 2B). Since 1997, outbreaks of hand-foot-and-mouth disease have been increasingly reported, the leading pathogens of which are various (Holbrook 2017;Yang et al 2019), have been structurally studied as antigenic particles using cryo-EM (Table 2). In contrast with non-enveloped enteroviruses, flaviviruses possess host-derived lipid bilayers with 180 pairs of envelope (E) and membrane (M) proteins on the viral membrane (Perera and Kuhn 2008).…”

The Impact and Control of Emerging and Re-Emerging Viral Diseases in the Environment: An African Perspective

“…It mostly occurs in Africa and South America. Historically, it caused large outbreaks in Europe and North America when it was introduced during the slave trade (Holbrook 2017).…”

The Yellow Fever Outbreak in Global Perspective is Serious and of Great Concern

“…Although, a small proportion of infections are asymptomatic and after three and six days of infection victims develops influenza-like symptoms (fever, joint pains, and headache), and after three or four days appearance of these symptoms may disappear, and in most cases, the period of recovery begins [30,31]. In other cases, febrile symptoms accompanied by nausea, vomiting, epigastric pain, renal failure, jaundice and hemorrhaging [2,32].…”