WARNING: Lethal First-of-Its-Kind Virus Is Now in the U.S.
It's called the Camp Virus, and it's never been in North America, ever, until now. It's part of the lethal Henipaviruses and was just discovered in the United States.
According to the Live Science website, it's a pathogen that was found in some short-tailed shrews in Alabama. A shrew is a tiny rodent that looks like a long mouse with a pointy snout with buck teeth.
Camp Hill virus is a type of henipavirus, a broad group of viruses that typically infect bats but have been known to "spill over" into various mammals, including humans. In people, henipaviruses can cause severe respiratory illness and a type of inflammation of the brain known as encephalitis.
At the moment, it appears that humans can only contract the Camp Virus through direct contact with animals that have it. That said, according to Live Science, it is related to two deadly viruses that have an average fatality rate of more than 50% in humans.
On a white background, three test tubes with the very widespread New Virus called the Nipah Virus are shown.
These two viruses are the Hendra and the Nipah which have yet to ever hit America.
[Hendra virus] was first detected in Australia in 1994 and has a case-fatality rate of around 60%. [Nipah virus] has caused disease outbreaks across Southeast Asia since being initially detected in Malaysia in 1998, and it kills between 40% and 70% of people infected.
According to the CDC, this alarming discovery is now listed as an Emerging Infectious Disease in the United States, raising concerns that it may be more widespread.
Henipaviruses can cross species barriers, infecting various mammals, including humans; they often cause severe respiratory illness and encephalitis and are associated with high case fatality rates.The 2 most notable henipaviruses are Hendra virus and Nipah virus.
The good news is that there haven't been any reported cases in humans yet while research continues. So far, Alabama is the only place it's been discovered, although short-tailed shrews can be found across North America.
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