Tanapox: A New Disease Caused by a Pox Virus

Tanapox. A serological survey of the lower Tana River valley

“…There is no evidence that infection spreads directly from person to person. It has been suggested that human infection is acquired from monkeys, possibly through the agency of mosquitoes (Downie et al 1971;Manson-Bahr & Downie, 1973). Examination of sera from monkeys caught in Ethiopia and Kenya showed Tanapox neutralizing antibodies in 16 %.…”

“…Two outbreaks of Tanapox occurred in 1957 and 1962 among the indigenous population living in the Tana River valley in Kenya (Downie et al 1971). Those affected suffered from a mild febrile illness and one or sometimes two firm, slowly developing pock like lesions on the upper part of the body.…”

Zoonoses: Proceedings of the third Liverpool Tropical School Bayer Symposium on Microbial Diseases held on 3 February 1996

“…Although the case numbers are too low for detailed analysis, a higher proportion of patients are young females, which is perhaps consistent with a tendency for such individuals to play with and care for cats [114] (Table 12 Tanapox is a zoonosis acquired from monkeys, but relatively little is known about its epidemiology. Epidemics have occurred due to crowding of people and animal species during floods [16] but man-to-man spread is extremely rare. It has been suggested [16] that indirect transmission may involve arthropod vectors, a suggestion consistent with the distribution of lesions in human cases.…”

“…Epidemics have occurred due to crowding of people and animal species during floods [16] but man-to-man spread is extremely rare. It has been suggested [16] that indirect transmission may involve arthropod vectors, a suggestion consistent with the distribution of lesions in human cases.…”

“…We had no idea where the disease came from but we suspected monkeys and that transmission was due to the exceptional biting rate of Mansonia mosquitos. We sent specimens of the lesions to Professor Allan Downie in Liverpool and he described the virus and by self-inoculation and culture recognised that it was not related to smallpox but more closely related to myxomatosis virus [16]. It is fortunate that Homo sapiens is not related to the rabbit!…”