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A veterinarian in Beijing has been confirmed as the first case in China of an infected and deceased person with monkey B virus (BV), his close contacts are safe for now, the Global Times reports.
The 53-year-old veterinarian, who works at an institution that studies non-human primates, showed early symptoms of nausea and vomiting, a month after dissecting two dead monkeys in early March, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The veterinarian sought treatment at several hospitals and eventually died on May 27.
Prior to this case, there were no fatal or even clinically obvious BV infections in China, thus the case of a veterinarian marked the first case of infection in people with BV identified in China.
The researchers collected cerebrospinal fluid from the veterinarian in April and identified it as positive for BV, but samples from his close contacts suggested negative results for the virus.
The virus, originally isolated in 1932, is an enzootic alphaherpesvirus in macaques. It can be transmitted through direct contact and exchange of bodily secretions and has a mortality rate of 70% to 80%.
It has been suggested that BV in monkeys may pose a potential threat to workers. It is necessary to eliminate BV during the development of specific pathogen-free rhesus colonies and to strengthen surveillance in laboratory macaques and professional workers in China.
Monkey B virus is transmitted just like the herpes simplex virus (HSV) in humans, according to the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Like the coronavirus, the first symptoms of the monkey B virus are flu-like, which include fever and chills, muscle aches, fatigue, and headaches. Symptoms can range from one day to three weeks.
As the disease worsens, the virus can cause swelling of the brain and spinal cord, leading to neurological and inflammatory symptoms, muscle coordination problems, brain damage and severe damage to the nervous system that eventually lead to death.
It is estimated that this virus has infected only 50 people by 2020, of whom 21 have died. “Although the risk of secondary transmission appears to be minimal, one case of human-to-human transmission of the herpes B virus has previously been documented.”
He added that monkey virus infections occurred mainly in “primate veterinarians, animal care personnel or laboratory researchers in the United States.”
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