The team from the virology laboratory of the Henri-Mondor AP-HP hospital and the University of Paris-Est Créteil have identified a new virus responsible for the death of a 58-year-old patient.
- A 58-year-old woman died of encephalitis after being infected with an Orthobunyavirus
- Orthobunyaviruses are transmitted by insects, often mosquitoes
- There would be no link between this new virus and the Covid-19
Virologists from the Henri-Mondor hospital in Créteil discovered the existence of a new virus following the death of a patient at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris. According to what they describe in the review Emerging Infectious Diseasesthe patient was 58 years old, suffered from fever and died of encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain.
Whole genome sequencing
Unable to determine the origin of this encephalitis (which can be infectious or immunological), the Parisian doctors sent a biopsy to their Cristolian colleagues (residents of Créteil), who used a technology called metagenomics. This technique, also used in China to identify the Covid-19, made it possible to discover that this Cristoli virus belonged to the family of Bunyaviridaewhich includes over 350 viruses in five genera (Orthobunyavirus, Hantavirus, Nairovirus, Phlebovirus, and Tospovirus).
In this case, it is an Orthobunyavirus. “They are transmitted by insects, often mosquitoes, but rarely cause serious illness. Most transmissions are asymptomatic”, explained to Parisian Jean-Michel Pawlotsky, head of the medical biology center at Mondor.
“The complete sequencing of the genome which was carried out made it possible to show that this new virus is close to an already known virus, the Umbre virus, but very different, and to reveal a strong expression of a virulence factor, which could explain the severity of infection”said the AP-HP in a communicated.
No link to the coronavirus
Nevertheless, many questions remain unanswered. It is currently impossible to know how the patient was infected, if she was able to infect her relatives, or even to know the incubation period of this new virus. “The patient had a very immunocompromised background, she was also very illsaid Jean-Michel Pawlotsky daily. This is a single case, isolated, without the slightest measure with the coronavirus. For the moment, nothing indicates that it circulates on the territory.”
