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DISASTER NEWS
New virus infects
family in Malaysia
29 Jun 2007
A newly
discovered virus of suspected bat origin has
caused acute respiratory disease in three
people from the same family in Malaysia. A
team of Malaysian and Australian scientists
led by Kaw Bing Chua reported the finding in
the July issue of the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, writing that
they isolated the previously unknown
orthoreovirus from a 39-year-old man in
Malacca, Malaysia, who fell ill in March
2006. His 11-year-old daughter and
six-year-old son developed milder symptoms
the week after the man fell ill, but all
three have since recovered. Epidemiological
tracing found the family was exposed to a
bat in their house a week before the father
became sick. While researchers don't have
direct evidence showing the provisionally
named "Melaka virus" originates from bats,
genome sequence analysis revealed it is
closely related to the Pulau virus, which
originates from fruit bats. The scientists
wrote, "The infection of multiple members in
the same family and the delayed onset by one
week of clinical symptoms of the two
children strongly suggest human-to-human
transmission." The researchers are
optimistic that identification of the Melaka
virus may help with better future diagnoses
of respiratory tract illnesses.
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