Arboviruses
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Under the name "arboviruses" (Latin Arthropoda - arthropods and English borne - transmitting) are now understood as viruses transmitted to susceptible vertebrates (including humans) through the bites of blood-sucking arthropods. Participation of the vector in the transmission of the causative agent determines such peculiarities of arbovirus infections as the seasonality associated with the life cycle of the vector and the spread of its habitat in the regions. These viruses do not necessarily cause lethal infections in arthropods, they may be asymptomatic without causing lesions or changes. Arboviruses have a unique ability to replicate both at body temperature of warm-blooded vertebrates, and at relatively low temperatures of the external environment. Transmission of the pathogen in arthropods from generation to generation can be carried out transovarially.
Arboviruses are a non-axonomic, collective concept. At present, there are about 400 arboviruses, mainly belonging to the families of tobogoviruses, flaviviruses, bunyaviruses, arenaviruses, reoviruses, rhabdoviruses. About 100 of them are pathogenic. Natural foci of arbovirus infections are found in all areas of the globe, but more often in tropical rain forest zones due to the abundance of species of warm-blooded animals and arthropods. In Russia, there are only a few of the arbovirus infections.
Diseases caused by arboviruses can manifest themselves in the form of three clinical syndromes:
- fever of an undifferentiated type, often called "dengue-like," with or without a small-spotted rash and with a relatively mild course;
- encephalitis, often with a fatal outcome;
- hemorrhagic fever, often with severe course and lethal outcome.
This division is very conditional, since the same causative agent can cause a disease with a predominance of certain symptoms and a different severity of the course.
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