#23 – Travel Viruses: Pappataci Fever and Toscana Virus

00:00:05: Most cases occur in summer, when these sand flies are most active.

00:00:10: And once you get bitten and infected the incubation time is three to five days... ...and then symptoms occur.

00:00:17: being irritated by light can be a symptom.

00:00:46: Yeah hello and welcome to this week's episode of Virological!

00:00:50: This was recorded on July twelfth of twenty-twenty six in western Syria or Austria.

00:00:57: It's summer and so I thought, I would record a few vacation episodes.

00:01:02: And we're going to start today with episode about papadacci fever which is caused by bunch of viruses, doskana virus, napalm virus, Sicily virus sounds like Italy right?

00:01:15: But also a bunch of other viruses!

00:01:19: Let's start this.

00:01:20: these viruses they are all bonior viruses.

00:01:23: They belong to the genus Flebovirus, and it will become clear why.

00:01:27: they are called fleboviruses.

00:01:30: They have a single-stranded RNA genome which is mostly negatively polarized.

00:01:36: The genome consists of three segments.

00:01:38: There's an L segment Which encodes for the polymerase An M segment which encodes For the glycoprotein And this small protein that's called NSM.

00:01:48: That seems to be important for replication and growth in insects.

00:01:54: And then there's a small segment that encodes for the nuclear protein, in negative orientation but also in the positive orientation.

00:02:01: it encodes on non-structural proteins.

00:02:04: So this segment is actually what we call MbSense because its positively polarized AND negatively polarized.

00:02:11: in terms of the protein reading frames These viruses are eighty to hundred twenty nanometers in diameter.

00:02:19: On the inside you have the RNA genome and that's covered by nuclear protein, which protects the RNA.

00:02:25: And then we have an associated polymerase.

00:02:29: This is basically inside a lipid membrane... ...and in the lipid-membrane you get glycoprotein.

00:02:36: That actually comes into two pieces.

00:02:38: A Gn barred and a GC barred.

00:02:42: As you know with proteins there are two terminals.

00:02:47: One is the N terminal, another one C terminal and so this glycoprotein, the spike protein is made as a large protein.

00:02:57: And then it's keyed into two bits... ...and one is the N terminal part, other ones are C terminal parts.

00:03:07: The reservoir for these viruses are rodents & bats but likely also sheep, goats or cattle.

00:03:15: They're transmitted by sand flies which are called flip-bottomers.

00:03:21: That why they call them fleboviruses.

00:03:23: There's actually three species of sand flies that transmit these viruses.

00:03:54: often these sand flies, you don't even see them.

00:03:58: You don't hear them they just bite you.

00:04:00: They're very small three millimeters Again.

00:04:03: the bite is not always felt there.

00:04:05: really hard to see.

00:04:07: and The interesting thing is their actually no good flyers this day Very close to the ground Which means if your?

00:04:14: And you know some kind of elevated Balcony or something like that one floor up There usually nothing issue.

00:04:21: They are very closed through the ground And with a lot of these blood-sucking insects, only the females suck blood and so on.

00:04:28: Only the females transmit the disease... ...and both them females and the males also feed on nectar.

00:04:35: other plants chooses.. ..And The fun fact is that they are really attracted by cannabis sativa So basically weed.

00:04:45: I don't know if you get high from it but this seem to be attracted to these plants.

00:04:52: The sand flies exist across the globe in warmer climates, but they also are very prevalent in the Mediterranean region.

00:05:03: What is also important to know that they can also transmit Laishmania which a parasite causes really terrible skin infections.

00:05:12: That's relatively rare in Italy But in North Africa for example you find it quite often.

00:05:17: Not only affects humans and dogs.

00:05:21: A little bit about the history of papadachi fever.

00:05:23: It was first described clinically in eighteen eighty six by an Austrian Hungarian physician, Alois Bick and The First Virus to be isolated or recognized as the Sicilian virus.

00:05:38: In nineteen forty three in Palermo when a lot of US troops fell sick during World War II and then in nineteen forty four napal's virus was isolated.

00:05:51: And doskana virus, it was then isolated in nineteen seventy one from two of these sent fly species.

00:05:58: There are additional viruses that closely related can also cause disease in humans.

00:06:03: One is called Daeron virus like the capital Iran.

00:06:08: another one is called Karimabad virus.

00:06:11: that tells you a little bit about the range of these viruses.

00:06:14: So basically we have them in the Mediterranean region, the Middle East but then also in parts of Asia and countries that are affected or Portugal do some degree not that much Spain Cyprus Italy quite a bit.

00:06:29: I mean three of this virus is our name after Italian regions The Balkans And then Of course In North Africa and the middle east Algeria Egypt Iran Turkey, Pakistan.

00:06:43: but you can also find these viruses in some areas of China for example.

00:06:48: What about the disease?

00:06:50: In general it seems that a lot of infections are asymptomatic.

00:06:55: if we go to areas where this virus is epidemic often upto twenty five percent population have antibodies which basically suggests there's alot mild or symptomatic cases.

00:07:09: Most cases occur in summer when these sand flies are most active and once you get bitten, infected incubation time is three to five days.

00:07:20: And then symptoms occur that include fever headache specifically the front of your head behind your eyes muscle aches joint aches back ache photophobia.

00:07:32: so basically being irritated by light can be a symptom they can also have, these infections come with GI tract symptoms including diarrhea.

00:07:47: Those carnaviruses are the only one of those viruses that is actually neurotropic and if symptomatic cases or symptomatic infection occur two to twelve percent of this can involve the central nervous system.

00:08:02: so these infections lead to meningitis, meningoencephalitis Which of course is much more severe than just having a fever.

00:08:12: but the good news Is that most cases are mild and then resolve within a few days.

00:08:17: The problem here, there's no vaccine for these viruses.

00:08:22: There also not treatment.

00:08:25: So basically if you get infected You have to wait it out.

00:08:31: as I said Most cases are Mild probably in a lot of asymptomatic cases And after some time people should get better when they're infected.

00:08:41: And so the only way to prevent getting infected or getting sick is use insect repellence and basically stay away from these sand flies.

00:08:52: So this was one of our short summer vacation episodes.

00:08:57: We'll continue next week with another virus that's transmitted in nice areas for a vacation by mosquitos.

00:09:05: Thanks for listening.

00:09:07: As always, if there's any questions concerns comments please feel free to write an email to Virological.com and If you like the podcast You can support us on steady.

00:09:22: thanks for listening in until next week.