Simian hemorrhagic fever virus
Encyclopedia
Simian hemorrhagic fever virus or simian haemorrhagic fever virus or SHFV is a highly pathogenic virus in monkeys. It is a positive-stranded RNA
RNA
Ribonucleic acid , or RNA, is one of the three major macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life....

 virus classified in the family Arteriviridae.

Hosts

Patas
Pataš
Pataš is a village and municipality in the Dunajská Streda District in the Trnava Region of south-west Slovakia. The municipality also comprises Milinovice and Pásztómajor settlements...

 are believed to be the natural host for the virus since about 50% of wild patas monkeys have antibodies for the virus, while antibodies are much less prevalent in other simian
Simian
The simians are the "higher primates" familiar to most people: the Old World monkeys and apes, including humans, , and the New World monkeys or platyrrhines. Simians tend to be larger than the "lower primates" or prosimians.- Classification and evolution :The simians are split into three groups...

 species such as vervets and baboons. In macaques, however, infection with this virus can result in acute severe disease with high mortality. Recently, red colobus monkeys have been identified as a natural host for SHFV.

Symptoms

Asymptomatic
Asymptomatic
In medicine, a disease is considered asymptomatic if a patient is a carrier for a disease or infection but experiences no symptoms. A condition might be asymptomatic if it fails to show the noticeable symptoms with which it is usually associated. Asymptomatic infections are also called subclinical...

 infection of the virus can occur in patas monkeys, vervet monkeys, and baboons, although it is observed primarily in patas monkeys. Infection has a rapid onset with animals developing a high fever
Fever
Fever is a common medical sign characterized by an elevation of temperature above the normal range of due to an increase in the body temperature regulatory set-point. This increase in set-point triggers increased muscle tone and shivering.As a person's temperature increases, there is, in...

, facial edema
Edema
Edema or oedema ; both words from the Greek , oídēma "swelling"), formerly known as dropsy or hydropsy, is an abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin or in one or more cavities of the body that produces swelling...

, cyanosis
Cyanosis
Cyanosis is the appearance of a blue or purple coloration of the skin or mucous membranes due to the tissues near the skin surface being low on oxygen. The onset of cyanosis is 2.5 g/dL of deoxyhemoglobin. The bluish color is more readily apparent in those with high hemoglobin counts than it is...

, anorexia
Anorexia (symptom)
Anorexia is the decreased sensation of appetite...

, melena
Melena
In medicine, melena or melaena refers to the black, "tarry" feces that are associated with gastrointestinal hemorrhage. The black color is caused by oxidation of the iron in hemoglobin during its passage through the ileum and colon.-Melena vs...

, and may begin to hemorrhage at the cutaneous, subcutaneous, and retrobulbar levels. Thrombocytopenia
Thrombocytopenia
Thrombocytopenia is a relative decrease of platelets in blood.A normal human platelet count ranges from 150,000 to 450,000 platelets per microliter of blood. These limits are determined by the 2.5th lower and upper percentile, so values outside this range do not necessarily indicate disease...

will develop soon after. Death usually occurs within 10–15 days after symptoms appear .
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