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RNA viruses Article II. Single-stranded RNA virus
A. Arenavirus
Article I. Double-stranded RNA virus
a. Family: Arenaviridae
A. Reovirus
b. Virus: Lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM) and Lassa
a. Family: Reoviridae fever (Lassa, Nigeria) viruses
b. Characteristics: c. Characteristics: Enveloped, irregular-shaped capsid
segmented double-stranded RNA genome; containing a two-segmented (each segment is circular),
icosahedral capsid with no envelope single-stranded RNA genome
c. Transmission: Fecal-oral; survive well on inanimate d. Transmission: From rodent to human through
objects contamination of human environment with rodent urine;
virus enters through skin abrasions or inhalation
d. Disease: Gastroenteritis in infants and children 6 mos.
to 2years
e. Disease: LCM causes asymptomatic to influenza-like to
e. Detection: EIA, latex agglutination aseptic meningitis-type disease; Lassa fever virus
causes influenza-like disease to severe hemorrhagic
f. Epidemiology: Winter-spring seasonality in temperate fever
climates; nosocomial transmission can occur easily
f. Diagnosis: Serology, PCR
g. Treatment: Supportive, especially fluid replacement
g. Treatment: Supportive for LCM; ribavirin and immune
h. Prevention: Avoid contact with virus; vaccine in plasma for Lassa fever
underdeveloped countries
h. Prevention: Avoid contact with virus, rodent control;
isolation and barrier nursing prevent nosocomial spread
B. Bunyaviridae
a. Family: Bunyaviridae
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Nonenveloped, icosahedral capsid
b. Virus: Arbovirus including the surrounding single-stranded RNA
California encephalitis group genome
containing LaCrosse virus and
nonathropod-borne virus including c. Transmission: Fecal-oral
hantaviruses (containing sin-nombre
virus) d. Disease: Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea
(Novovirus), hepatitis similar to that caused
c. Characteristics: Segmented, single- by hepatitis A virus except virus except for
extraordinary high case fatality rate (10% to
stranded RNA genome. Spherical or
20%) among pregnant women
pleomorphic capsid with envelope
e. Diagnosis: EM, RT-PCR, EIA for
d. Transmission: Mosquito, tick and
Novoviruses; serology for hepatitis E
sandfly vectors except for
hantaviruses, which are zoonoses f. Treatment: Supportive
transmitted by contact with rodent host
g. Prevention: Avoid contact with virus
e. Disease: Encephalitis for arboviruses;
pneumonia or hemorrhagic fever for D. Coronavirus
hantaviruses
a. Family: Coronaviridae
f. Diagnosis: Serology and antibody
detection in cerebrospinal fluid, RT- b. Virus: Coronavirus
PCR for hantaviruses
c. Characteristics:
g. Treatment: Supportive Single-stranded, RNA genome. Helical capsid
with envelope
h. Prevention:
Avoid contact with arthropod
d. Transmission: Unknown, probably direct contact or
vector. Vector control programs;
aerosol
hantaviruses, avoid rodent urine
and feces
C. Calcivirus
e. Disease:
a. Family: Calciviridae Common cold; possibly gastroenteritis,
especially in children; severe acute respiratory
b. Characteristics: syndrome (SARS)
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a. Family: Flaviviridae
f. Diagnosis: Electron microscopy and RT-PCR
b. Characteristics: Single-stranded RNA genome
g. Treatment: Supportive
surrounded by spherical and icosahedral capsid
h. Prevention: Avoid contact with virus with envelope
E. Filovirus c. Virus: Arboviruses including yellow-fever,
dengue, West Nile, Japanese encephalitis and
a. Family: Filoviridae St. Louis encephalitis viruses
b. Virus: Ebola (aka Ebola-Reston) and Marburg d. Transmission: Arthropod vector, usually
viruses
mosquito
c. Transmission:
Transmissible to humans from monkeys e. Disease: St. Louis and West Nile encephalitis,
and presumably, other wild animals; dengue & yellow-fever
human-to-human transmission via body
fluids and respiratory droplets f. Diagnosis: Serology & antibody detection in
CSF; RT-PCR for dengue & yellow-fever
d. Disease: Severe hemorrhage and liver necrosis;
mortality as high as 90%
g. Treatment: Supportive
e. Diagnosis: Electron microscopy, cell culture in
monkey kidney cells; Biosafety level 4 required h. Prevention: Avoid contact with vector, vector
control programs
f. Treatment: Supportive
g. Prevention: Avoid contact with virus; export
prohibitions on wild-caught monkeys
F. Flavivirus
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e. Disease:
Influenza (fever, malaise, headache, myalgia,
Virus: Hepatitis C virus
cough);
primary influenza pneumonia; in children,
a. Transmission: Parenteral or sexual
bronchiolitis, croup, otitis media
b. Disease:
Acute & chronic hepatitis; strong f. Detection:
Cell culture (PMK), EIA, FA stain, RT-PCR
correlation between chronic HCV
infection and hepatocellular carcinoma g. Epidemiology:
Viral subtypes based on hemagglutinin and
neuraminidase glycoproteins abbreviated H &
c. Diagnosis: Serology, RT-PCR and viral N respectively (ex. H1N1 or H3N2)
genotyping Infects humans and other animals; antigenic drift,
resulting in minor antigenic change, causes local
d. Treatment: Supportive outbreaks of influenza every 1-3 years; antigenic
shift, resulting in major antigenic change, causes
e. Prevention: periodic worldwide outbreak
Avoid contact with virus; blood supply
screened for antibody to hepatitis C h. Treatment: Supportive; antivirals amantadine &
virus rimantadine (influenza A only) & zanamivir and oseltamivir
influenza A & B
G. Orthomyxovirus
i. Prevention: Influenza vaccine or antiviral prophylaxis
a. Family: Orthromyxoviridae
b. Characteristics:
Segmented (eight separate molecules), single-
stranded RNA genome;
helical capsid with envelope;
three major antigenic types, Influenza A, B and C.
Types A & B cause nearly all human disease
c. Virus: Influenza A
d. Transmission: Contact with respiratory secretions
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f. Detection: Cell culture (PMK) and serology
Virus: Influenza B g. Treatment: Supportive; immunocompromised
patients can be treated with immune serum globulin
a. Transmission: Contact with respiratory
secretions h. Prevention: Measles vaccine
b. Disease: Similar to mild influenza
Virus: Mumps
c. Detection: Cell culture (PMK), EIA, FA
stain, RT-PCR a. Transmission: Person to person contact, presumably
respiratory droplets
d. Epidemiology: Antigenic drift only,
resulting in local outbreaks every 1-3
b. Disease: Mumps
years
e. Treatment: Supportive; antivirals c. Detection: Cell culture (PMK) and serology
zanamavir and oseltamivir
d. Treatment: Supportive
f. Prevention: Influenza vaccine or
antiviral prophylaxis e. Prevention: Mumps vaccine
Virus: Parainfluenza virus
H. Paramyxovirus
a. Transmission: Contact with respiratory secretions
a. Family: paramyxoviridae
b. Characteristics: Single-stranded, RNA genome; b. Disease:
helical capsid with envelope; no segmented genome Adults: upper respiratory, rarely
like othromyxoviruses pneumonia.
Children: respiratory including croup,
c. Virus: Measles bronchiolitis & pneumonia
d. Transmission: Contact with respiratory secretions;
c. Detection: Cell culture (PMK), shell vial culture and FA
extremely contagious
stain
e. Disease:
Measles, d. Epidemiology: Four serotypes, disease occurs year-
atypical measles (occurs in those with round
waning vaccine immunity) and
subacute sclerosing panencephalitis e. Treatment: Supportive
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f. Prevention: Avoid contact with virus f. Prevention: Avoid contact with virus
Virus: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) I. Picornaviruses
a. Family: Picornaviridae
a. Transmission: Person to person by hand and respiratory contact
b. Virus:
b. Disease: Primarily in infants and children. Infants: bronchiolitis,
Enteroviruses
pneumonia and croup. Children: upper respiratory
Poliovirus (3 type)
c. Detection: Cell culture (HEp-2), EIA and FA stain Coxsackievirus, group A (23
types)
d. Epidemiology: Disease occurs annually late fall through early Coxsackievirus, gropu G (6
spring; nosocomial transmission can occur readily ytpes)
Echovirus (31 types)
e. Treatment: Supportive; treat severe disease in compromised infants Enteroviruses (5 types)
with ribavirin
c. Transmission: Fecal-oral
f. Prevention: Avoid contact with virus. Immune globulin for infants d. Disease:
with underlying lung disease; prevent nosocomial transmission with Predominant virus in parentheses;
isolation and cohorting polio (poliovirus),
herpangina (coxsackie A),
Virus: Metapneumovirus
pleurodynia (coxsackie B),
aseptic meningitis (many enterovirus
a. Transmission: Person to person types), hand-foot-mouth disease
(coxsackie A),
b. Disease: Primarily in infants and children; bronchiolitis and pericarditis & myocarditis (coxsackie B),
pneumonia acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis
(enterovirus 70),
c. Detection: RT-PCR & fever,
myalgia,
summer flu (many enterovirus types),
d. Epidemiology: Winter epidemics, severity varies from year
neonatal disease (echo &
to year coxsackieviruses)
e. Treatment: Supportive
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e. Detection: Cell culture (PMK & HDF), PCR &
Serology
J. Retroviruses
f. Treatment: Supportive, pleoconaril in
development a. Family: Retroviridae
g. Prevention: Avoid contact with virus, b. Characteristics:
vaccination with polio Single-stranded, RNA genome; icosahedral
capsid with envelope;
reverse transcriptase converts genomic RNA
Virus: Hepatitis A virus (enterovirus type 72) into DNA
c. Virus: Human immunodeficiency virus types 1 & 2
a. Transmission: Fecal-oral (HIV-1 & HIV-2)
b. Disease: Hepatitis with short incubation, abrupt onset d. Transmission:
and low mortality, no carrier state Sexual contact, blood & blood product
exposure and perinatal exposure
c. Detection: Serology
e. Site of latency: CD4 T-lymphocytes
d. Treatment: Supportive
f. Disease:
Most disease in humans caused by HIV-1;
e. Prevention: Vaccine; prevent clinical illness with
infected cells include CD4 (helper) T
serum immunoglobulin
lymphocytes, monocytes and some cells
of the central nervous system;
Virus: Rhinovirus (common cold virus) asymptomatic infection,
acute flu-like disease,
a. Characteristics: Approximately 100 serotypes AIDS related complex &
AIDS associated infections &
b. Transmission: Contact with respiratory secretions malignancies
c. Disease: Common cold g. Detection: Serology, antigen detection, RT-PCR
d. Detection: Cell culture, RT-PCR h. Epidemiology:
Those at risk of infection are homosexual or
bisexual males, intravenous drug abusers,
e. Treatment: Supportive
sexual contact of HIV-infected individuals &
infants of infected mothers
f. Prevention: Avoid contact with virus
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i. Treatment: H. Rhabdovirus
Many including nucleoside reverse
transcriptase inhibitors, non-nucleoside
reverse transcriptase inhibitors, protease a. Family: Rhabdoviridae
inhibitors & inhibitors of viral entry into host
cells. Treat infections resulting from b. Characterisitcs:
immunosuppression Single-stranded, RNA genome;
j. Prevention: helical capsid with envelope, bullet-
Avoid contact with infected blood/blood shaped
products and secretions. Blood for
transfusion is screened for antibody to HIV-1 c. Transmission:
&2
Bite of rabid animal most common;
20% of human rabies cases have
Virus: Human T-lymphotropic viruses (HTLV-1&HTLV-2) no known exposure to rabid animal
A. Transmission: known means of d. Disease: Rabies
transmission is similar to HIV
e. Detection: FA staining, PCR
B. Disease:
T-cell leukemia & lymphoma &
tropical spastic paraparesis for
f. Treatment: Supportive
HTLV-1;
no know disease associations g. Prevention:
forHTLV-2 Avoid contact with rabid animals;
vaccinate domestic animals;
C. Detection: Serology postexposure prophylaxis with
hyperimmune antirabies globulin
D. Epidemiology: HTLV-1 present in 0.025%
of volunteer blood donors in US. Blood
and immunization with rabies
is screened for antibody to HTLV-1 & 2; vaccine
rates of HTLV-1in areas of Japan and the
Caribbean are considerably higher
E. Oncogenic: T-cell lymphoma (HTLV-1)
F. Treatment: Supportive
G. Prevention: Avoid contact with virus
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I. Togavirus
a. Family: Togaviridae
b. Characteristics:
Single-stranded RNA genome &
icosahedral capsid with envelope;
family contains arbovirus & nonarthropod-
borne rubella virus
Virus: Arboviruses referred to as alphaviruses
c. Virus: Rubella virus
d. Transmission: Respiratory, transplacental a. Transmission: Arthropod vector, usually
mosquito
e. Disease: Rubella (mild exanthematous disease),
congenital rubella b. Disease:
Eastern, Western & Venezuelan equine
f. Detection: Serology encephalitis
g. Treatment: Supportive c. Detection:
Serology & antibody detection in CSF
h. Prevention: Rubella vaccine
d. Treatment: Supportive
e. Prevention:
Avoid contact with vector; vector
control programs
