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Project

Epidemiology of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in the Kilombero river valley, Tanzania

Rift Valley Fever (RVF), a mosquito‐borne viral disease of humans and animals, is caused by a member of the Phlebovirus genus in the family Bunyaviridae. It is an acute viral infection producing inapparent or mild disease in adult animals; and provokes abortion among pregnant ungulates and often is fatal to young animals. The disease was first described in the early 1900s during an investigation of an epidemic among sheep on a farm in the Rift Valley areas of Kenya. RVF virus is transmitted principally through bites from infected mosquitoes to both animals and humans; however people can also get infected when they are exposed to the blood, body fluids, or tissues of infected animals when handling sick or dead animals. The goal of this study is to investigate the disease in both humans and livestock in a seasonal flooding plain of Kilombero river valley in Tanzania, which mimics unusual precipitation increase on annual basis, by examining for presence of circulating antibodies against RVF and presence of viral antigens in mosquito vectors.
Datum:1 jun 2010 →  19 feb 2019
Trefwoorden:B780-tropische-geneeskunde