New Virus May Have Come from Monkeys, Experts Say

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New Virus May Have Come from Monkeys, Experts Say

 

1 hour, 59 minutes ago

 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two new retroviruses never before seen in humans have

turned up among people who regularly hunt monkeys in Cameroon, researchers

reported on Friday.

 

 

Like the AIDS (news - web sites) virus, these viruses insert their genetic

material directly into cells and perhaps even into a person's or animal's

chromosomes. Closely related versions of the viruses cause leukemia,

inflammatory and neurological diseases.

 

The two new viruses are called human T-lymphotropic virus types 3 and 4 or

HTLV-3 and HTLV-4. They are closely related to two known viruses called HTLV-1

and HTLV-2, which experts believe were transmitted to people, like HIV (news -

web sites), from monkeys and apes.

 

" Because HIV originated as a cross-species infection from a non-human primate

virus, the question was how much cross-species retrovirus infections are

occurring and what are the consequences of these infections, " said Walid Hemeine

of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites), who

led the study.

 

They examined blood samples from 930 Cameroonians who had handled or eaten bush

meat -- monkeys or apes hunted for food.

 

They used antibody screening and genetic analysis to find at least six different

simian retroviruses had infected 13 of the people.

 

" Two hunters were infected with two previously unknown HTLV viruses. One person

was infected with HTLV-3, which is genetically similar to a simian virus,

STLV-3, and represents the first documented human infection with this virus, "

the researchers told the 12th Annual Retrovirus Conference being held in Boston.

 

" The second hunter was infected with HTLV-4, a virus distinct from all

previously known human or simian T-lymphotropic viruses. "

 

" It's totally new so we don't know any other simian virus that is related to

it, " Hemeine said in a telephone interview.

 

Now the team, which includes researchers at Johns Hopkins University in

Baltimore, plans to look more extensively in Central Africa for the virus,

Hemeine said. " They could be more widespread than we think they are, " he said.

 

Hemeine said up to 25 million people globally are infected with HTLV-1 and 2.

 

Currently, specialized tests are needed to find the viruses, he said.

 

" It's a new virus. You pause, you say, where is this virus coming from. I don't

think you should be taking it lightly, " Hemeine said.

 

After infecting one person, simian viruses often spread from person to person

through sex, mother-to-child transmission, and other exchanges of blood and body

fluids.

 

Like HIV, the incubation period for HTLV viruses to cause disease can last

decades, the CDC said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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