Emerging virus infections and novel intervention strategies

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• Professor Ab Osterhaus, Department of Virology, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam
• Wednesday 27 January 2010, 16:30-17:30
• Lecture Theatre 1, Department of Veterinary Medicine.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Suzy Blows.

In the past century, pandemic outbreaks of influenza and AIDS have cost the lives of tens of millions of people. These events were all caused by multiple introductions of animal viruses – influenza A viruses and SIV of birds and non-human primates respectively – into the human population. Besides these introductions causing major pandemics in humans, a large number of other virus infections have spilled over from animal reservoirs to humans or other susceptible species, resulting in considerable morbidity and mortality as “virgin soil” epidemics. The most recent examples in humans are the introduction of SARS coronavirus and influenza A viruses (H5N1 and H7N7 ) from the animal world, which caused global concern about their potential to be at the origin of new pandemics. Over the last decades there seems to be a dramatic increase in the emergence or re-emergence of virus threats in humans and animals worldwide. A long list of exotic names like Ebola, Lassa, Rift-Valley, Crimea-Congo, Hendra, Nipah and West-Nile is the illustration of names of just some of the places associated with the origin of viruses that crossed the species boundary to humans, with dramatic consequences in the last ten years alone. Similarly, recent mass mortalities among wild aquatic and terrestrial mammals caused by previously known and newly discovered morbilliviruses, as well as outbreaks of hog cholera, foot-and-mouth disease and fowl plague among domestic animals, highlight this trend. Although improved detection and surveillance techniques, as well as increased media attention may have contributed to our perception of an increase in the incidence of outbreaks of virus infections, it is becoming more and more clear that major changes in our modern society increasingly create new opportunities for virus infections to emerge: a complex mix of changes in social environments, medical and agricultural technologies and ecosystems continues to create new niches for viruses to cross species boundaries and to rapidly adapt to new species. In combating this global threat, we should make optimal use of the new tools provided by the unprecedented advances made in the research areas of molecular biology, epidemiology, genomics and bioinformatics. Especially the role of early warning systems based on state of the art virus detection and discovery techniques, as well as targeted intervention strategies based on data on the mutual virus-host interaction, obtained from modern genomics studies, have already shown to make the difference in dealing with recent viral threats like SARS and avian influenza.

This talk is part of the Departmental Seminar Programme, Department of Veterinary Medicine series.

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