NZ’s ‘virus hunters’ make new discovery

13 January 2015
NZ’s ‘virus hunters’ make new discovery

ESR scientist Dr Richard Hall has confirmed what is believed to be New Zealand’s first reported case of the sometimes nasty virus known as human parechovirus 3 (HPeV3).

The ESR team, dubbed the ‘virus hunters’, made the discovery as part of a Health Research Council of New Zealand-funded study delving into unsolved outbreaks of human gastroenteritis (vomiting and diarrhoea). The full results have just been published in the top international Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

HPeV3 was first discovered in Japan in 2004, but up until very recently it has only been reported once in Bolivia. Last year it caused a significant outbreak of sepsis (infection of the blood) in babies in Australia.

Dr Hall says the virus, which mainly infects babies and young children, may often cause no symptoms. However, it is also known to cause more severe diseases which can be fatal, including blood infections in newborn babies, acute inflammation of the brain, and even paralysis.

The faecal sample that tested positive for HPeV3 came from a 2-year-old child who was part of a gastro outbreak that occurred in a childcare facility in 2012. It is not clear if HPeV3 was the cause of the outbreak, but the Ministry of Health and the medical officer of health from the district health board (DHB) where the patient resided were notified about the finding.

“The HPeV3 virus survives in the body for only a short time, maybe a few weeks, and is thought to be spread through the faecal-oral route. It can affect different tissue types in the body, such as the membranes surrounding the brain, but there’s still a lot that we don’t know about it,” says Dr Hall.

The ESR team want to make clinicians and public health authorities aware of the presence of HPeV3 due to the serious illnesses associated with its infection.

“We suggest they consider testing for HPeV3 as is carried out in the US, Japan, and Europe, and more recently in Australia, especially for rare cases of severe disease that can’t be explained,” says Dr Hall.

The development of any future diagnostic tests would be put together by ESR, the Ministry of Health, and DHB labs.

To read the full article in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, go to http://jcm.asm.org/content/53/1/15.full

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