Tempering the risk: Rift valley fever and bioterrorism

摘要

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an arthropod-borne pathogen that primarily affects ruminants in eastern and sub-Saharan Africa first described following an outbreak on a farm in Kenya in 1931. Periodic outbreaks of RVFV since that time have resulted in significant losses to the African livestock industry as well as large numbers of infections in some of the most impoverished human populations. In one 2006/2007 outbreak across Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania alone, there were an estimated 145 000 human cases, and the ban imposed on imports after the 1997/1998 outbreak in Somalia led to a collapse of the vital livestock industry. Previously ignored, it is only in the past decade that the international community has started to take an increased interest in the disease. This followed the recognition of its potential to spread beyond the confines of the African continent after a large outbreak in Saudi Arabia in 2000.