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Vietnamese experts have discovered a new deadly virus
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Vietnamese scientists have found out that some cycloviruses, which were previously considered harmless to human health, can cause fatal diseases. After carefully examining a fairly large number of patients in Asian clinics, scientists have determined that the new virus can contribute to the formation of a dangerous neuroinfection.
For several months, specialists studied the analyses, medical records and examinations of patients in Vietnamese clinics who suffer from acute brain diseases. The study's leaders consider it important that until recently, cycloviruses were not considered mortally dangerous. After the study was completed, all data were published in local medical publications.
In fact, scientists are not yet sure that it is the discovered cyclovirus that is the cause of the neuroinfectious disease, but doctors consider it important that the source of the infection was found in an unusual place during the study. This time, the sources of infection were noticed in the spinal cord fluid, in which viruses and other infectious agents of diseases had not been found before. European colleagues of the Vietnamese researchers agreed that this issue requires detailed and immediate study, since the scale of the threat that this discovery may pose is still unclear.
Neurological diseases that are dangerous to human health and life are usually caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses, but it often happens that the cause of the disease remains unknown.
According to Vietnamese doctors, the results of the study have revealed to medicine one of the potential causes of acute neurological diseases. During the examination of patients, about 1,700 samples of spinal cord fluid were studied. All participants in the experiment were affected by viral encephalitis or other neuroinfections.
In 5% of patients, a cyclovirus was found in the spinal fluid, which had not been described in disease descriptions up to that point. Further study of the issue showed that this cyclovirus had been seen in the brain tissue of large animals some time ago.
Scientists are confident that this cyclovirus is not dangerous for people who have not suffered from infectious diseases of the nervous system. On the other hand, it turned out that domestic animals living in this region were also infected with the virus.
At present, specialists are trying to grow cyclovirus in laboratory conditions and are going to start developing new tests that will determine the presence of natural antibodies capable of fighting it in the human body. Some doctors believe that the presence of such antibodies in the blood will confirm the danger of cyclovirus to the human body.
The study conducted in the Vietnamese clinic is certainly important for modern medicine. The results of the work proved the possibility of infection in the spinal cord fluid, which was not known before.
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