ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 13, 1997 TAG: 9704140025
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: COX NEWS SERVICE
Among the patients suffering the head-to-toe blisters and high fever, three-fourths appear to have been infected by another person.
A genetic cousin of the long-feared smallpox virus, native to monkeys but able in some cases to infect and kill humans, has broken out in the troubled African state of Zaire.
Monkeypox - responsible for at least 92 cases of sickness, including three deaths, in the most recent outbreak - was recognized years ago as an animal disease that can infect humans. Now, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the situation has changed: Among the patients suffering the head-to-toe blisters and high fever, three-fourths appear to have been infected by another person.
The CDC disclosed the disease outbreak last week, drawing on the reports of an investigative team that went to Zaire in February but was forced to leave in March by ongoing civil unrest.
``We haven't been able to prove that this newly observed potential for human-to-human transmission is sufficient for the disease to sustain itself in the population,'' said Dr. Yvan Hutin of the National Center for Infectious Diseases, a member of the Zaire team. ``We don't know whether this could lead to a major outbreak, for instance in a refugee camp.''
The outbreak in Zaire may have originated in tree squirrels native to the central African rain forest. Once in humans, it spread through 12 villages in central Zaire, causing fever, respiratory trouble, and a disfiguring rash similar to smallpox. The current outbreak affected mostly adults; the three deaths, however, were all in children younger than 3.
Investigators were evacuated before they were able to pinpoint how the disease is transmitted from animals or between people, Hutin said. The virus is, so far, limited to the African rain forest and isn't likely to reach this country, Hutin said.
The outbreak is unnerving for several reasons: First, it involves an organism that crossed from an animal species to humans, the same pathway believed taken by more deadly diseases such as hantavirus and Ebola. Second, it is occurring in one of the world's most medically deprived areas, in the midst of political upheaval - prime conditions for the spread of disease. And third, it raises the specter of smallpox, which was for centuries one of the world's mostkillers.killer.
The smallpox virus now exists only in several high-security repositories - including a CDC lab -labs and is scheduled to be destroyed in 1999.
But Vaccinia vaccine, which prevents smallpox, also protects against monkeypox, Hutin said.
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