THE RIFT VALLEY FEVER: COULD RE-EMERGE IN EGYPT AGAIN?

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 The Military Medical Services For Preventive Medicine, Egypt.

2 The Military Medical Academy, Egypt.

3 Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11566, Egypt.

Abstract

The Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a neglected, emerging, mosquito-borne disease with severe negative impact on human and animal health and economy. RVF is caused by RVF virus of the family of Bunyaviridae, genus Phlebovirus. RVF is an
acute, febrile disease affecting humans and a wide range of animals. The virus is trans-mitted through the bites from mosquitoes and exposure to viremic blood, body fluids, or contact with tissues of infected animals or by inhaling natural virus aerosols, also possibly by consumption of infected unpasteurized milk. The RVF-virus replicate at the site introduction and in local lymphatic followed by viremia and spread to other organs as the liver and central nervous system, causing the hepatic necrosis and eosinophilia cytoplasmic degeneration. The main signs and symptoms are fever, headache, myalgia, arthralgia, photophobia, bradycardia, conjunctivitis and flushing face. Main complications include jaundice, hemorrhagic, meningoencephalitis and retinal lesions. Generally speaking, in the21stCentury, the vector-borne infectious diseases, was accepted as the disaster issues with the considerable significant morbidity and mortality. These facts should be considered by the public health, veterinary and agricultural authorities

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