Gou virus (GOUV) is a
single-stranded
When referring to DNA transcription, the coding strand (or informational strand) is the DNA strand whose base sequence is identical to the base sequence of the RNA transcript produced (although with thymine replaced by uracil). It is this stra ...
,
negative-sense
In molecular biology and genetics, the sense of a nucleic acid molecule, particularly of a strand of DNA or RNA, refers to the nature of the roles of the strand and its complementarity (molecular biology), complement in specifying a sequence of am ...
, enveloped novel RNA
orthohantavirus
''Orthohantavirus'' is a genus of single-stranded, enveloped, negative-sense RNA viruses in the family '' Hantaviridae'' within the order ''Bunyavirales''. Members of this genus may be called orthohantaviruses or simply hantaviruses.
Orthohantav ...
. It is one of the known hantaviruses responsible for
hantavirus hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome
Hantavirus hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a group of clinically similar illnesses caused by species of hantaviruses. It is also known as Korean hemorrhagic fever and epidemic hemorrhagic fever. It is found in Europe, Asia, and A ...
in humans.
Natural reservoir
Gou virus was first isolated from
black rats (R. rattus) captured in
Zhejiang Province in 2000. Genetically variant strains of GOUV have been found in black rats in
Longquan
Longquan () is a county-level city and former county under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Lishui in southwestern Zhejiang Province, China, located on the upper reaches of the Ou River and bordering Fujian province to the sout ...
,
China. In addition, hantavirus strains isolated from R. flavipectus and R. norvegicus in Longquan are most closely related to GOUV.
Transmission
Like all hantaviruses, transmission to humans is primarily through aerosolized rodent excreta and hand-to-mouth contamination from fomites. No human-to-human transmission has been documented. Longquan City, Zhejiang province, China, has a persistently high rate of human infection with GOUV. There is speculation that a variant strain of GOUV is transmissible from human-to-human. However, this has not yet been confirmed with epidemiological trace-back analysis.
Morbidity and mortality
Between 1974-2011, in annual numbers (cases/100,000 population), a total of 20 patients died of HFRS in Longquan, with an average fatality rate of 1.07%. The highest fatalities were between 1974-1983 with an 11% death rate (10 deaths/91 cases). Seasonally, all deaths occurred in autumn and winter. No deaths have been reported since 2007. This is believed to be due to early diagnosis and improved supportive treatment.
[Fang LQ, Wang XJ, Liang S, Li YL, Song SX, et al. (2010) Spatiotemporal trends and climatic factors of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome epidemic in Shandong Province, China. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 4: e789.]
See also
*
Cross-species transmission
Cross-species transmission (CST), also called interspecies transmission, host jump, or spillover, is the transmission of an infectious pathogen, such as a virus, between hosts belonging to different species. Once introduced into an individual of a ...
*
Novel virus
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.
Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's ...
References
External links
Serang virus strain details Natural reservoirs of hantavirusesVirus Pathogen Database and Analysis Resource (ViPR): Bunyaviridae
{{Taxonbar, from=Q16982456
Viral diseases
Hantaviridae
Zoonoses
Hemorrhagic fevers
Rodent-carried diseases