China has reported its first human infection with Monkey B Virus (BV) and subsequent death. A Beijing-based veterinary surgeon was infected with the virus after he dissected two dead monkeys in early March, according to China CDC Weekly.
The virus is a form of herpes that normally occurs in primates but can cause nausea, vomiting, fever, headache, fatigue, muscle pains, and blistering in humans.
The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) said the 53-year-old vet died in May after dissecting two dead primates, believed to be macaques, as part of his experimental research.
The man reportedly experienced symptoms of the virus after working on the animals and eventually died in hospital.
The CCDC warned anyone working on primates, saying they could be potentially harmed by the infection, which rarely jumps from monkeys to humans, according to RT.
The virus is causing concern among the scientific community.
According to the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is “extremely rare” for humans to be infected with the virus, which it says can cause “severe brain damage or death if you do not get treatment immediately”.
Several cases of rare or largely unknown diseases have caused alarm in recent months, including the news a Texas resident returning from Nigeria was hospitalized with monkeypox, which has a 1% chance of being fatal.
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