Global & Disaster Medicine

Rift Valley Fever: It’s even more dangerous to fetuses than Zika.

NYT

“…….Testing on human placental tissue revealed that, unlike the Zika virus, Rift Valley fever virus has a unique ability to infect a specialized layer of cells that supports the region of the placenta where nutrients flow in.

Zika must take the “side roads” into the placenta to infect a fetus, while the Rift Valley fever virus can take the “expressway,” Dr. Hartman said.

“The fetus is protected from hundreds of thousands of dangers that could affect it,” she added. “Only a few microbes can get past, and this is one of them.”…….”

Rift Valley Fever Distribution MapRift Valley Fever Distribution Map

Rift Valley Fever:  Document

Rift Valley fever virus induces fetal demise in Sprague-Dawley rats through direct placental infection

Comments are closed.

Categories

Recent Posts

Archives

Admin