Many questions remain, including where the virus naturally “lives” and how it is transmitted. What they stumbled upon was a new bornavirus that was transmitted from squirrels to humans, resulting in three fatal bouts of encephalitis. Furthermore, nobody is even sure whether or not it came from Central America as the animals were healthy when they were first brought into the country.
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After the mysterious deaths of three German men who all worked as breeders of variegated squirrels-a kind of squirrel native to Central America that’s sometimes kept as an exotic pet-researchers have identified a new virus that had apparently jumped from the squirrels to the men, LiveScience reports. They were all members of the same squirrel breeding association and knew each other socially. The study’s senior author, Martin Beer, DVM, head of virus diagnostics at the Friedrich-Loeffler Institute in Insel Riems, Germany, told HealthDay that the three men were in their 60s or older and had other medical conditions that possibly could have contributed to their reaction to the virus.
Bornaviruses typically infect birds, horses, and sheep, and there has been little scientific consensus as to whether or not they could be passed along to humans. The victims all perished between 2011 and 2013, after one was bitten and the other two were scratched by the animals. All three men were hospitalized in intensive care units and treated for initial symptoms of fever, chill, and weakness, and delayed symptoms of confusion and loss of motor function. These men also had swelling in their brains, a characterisation of the bornavirus, however, tests did not reveal any such cause for the swelling of the brain. Researchers have debated whether this group of viruses can cause disease in people. However, health experts say that the risk of contracting the virus by humans is low as no additional animal or human has been detected with the same virus. However, the tests performed do not definitely prove the VSBV-1 virus caused the deadly cases of encephalitis.
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“Pending the completion of the cluster investigation, feeding or direct contact with living or dead variegated squirrels should be avoided as a precautionary measure”, the ECDC added.
