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Beware of the bat

January 16, 2002

EMBARGOED UNTIL WEDNESDAY 16 JANUARY 2002 19:00 GMT
UK CONTACT - Claire Bowles, New Scientist Press Office, London:
Tel: +44(0)20 7331 2751 or email claire.bowles@rbi.co.uk


If you thought rabies was a thing of the past, think again

COUNTRIES that are officially free of rabies are still at risk from closely related viruses, virologists warned last week. Various strains found in bats are a direct threat to humans, and could also trigger an outbreak among other animals.

"We must make sure governments remain vigilant," says Tony Fooks, head of the rabies research group at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, Surrey. His warning, to a conference in London, coincides with a report by Liam Donaldson, Britain`s chief medical officer, outlining the government`s plans for tackling re-emerging diseases such as TB, as well as new threats like Ebola.

In Europe, two relatives of the rabies virus, European bat lyssaviruses 1 and 2, are causing concern. People bitten by bats with EBLs can become infected, and at least three have died in the past 25 years. But perhaps the biggest threat to people is from an EBL epidemic in other animals, triggered by bats.

So far EBL viruses have spilt over into animals only once, killing three sheep in Denmark in 1998. But other cases may have gone unreported. And Noel Tordo of the Pasteur Institute in Paris says that the normal animal vaccine against rabies would be useless. "EBLs are genetically distinct from the classic rabies virus, so vaccinated animals wouldn`t be protected," he says. That could undermine a successful campaign in western Europe to wipe out rabies by feeding bait laced with vaccine to red foxes.

EBLs are found mainly in serotines, bats most common in mainland Europe. But in 1996, a bat that bit two people in Sussex tested positive for EBL2.

"We must be very vigilant because we can`t stop bats flying into the UK," says Fooks. "It`s imperative for people bitten by animals to wash wounds immediately and seek medical treatment."

Like most of Europe, Australia is officially rabies-free, but another rabies relative, Australian bat lyssavirus, has been discovered in flying foxes. It has killed at least two people recently. Elsewhere in the world, classic rabies remains endemic in animals, especially dogs. Up to 70,000 people die of the disease each year in Asia and Africa.

Underscoring the risk of diseases popping up unexpectedly, Albert Osterhaus of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam presented a surprise case of cowpox in humans. A young girl turned up with awful facial scabs at Utrecht University Hospital. It turned out she`d brought home a sick rat that died the next day. "We dug up the rat and isolated a virus, showing it was the same one affecting the girl, a cowpox virus," said Osterhaus.

He says that there might be more cases now that children are no longer vaccinated against smallpox with vaccinia, the cowpox virus. "Doctors should keep their eyes and ears open."

Author: Andy Coghlan

New Scientist