Arenavirus is a genus of virus. The type species is Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus; it also includes the species responsible for Lassa fever. Viruses can be classified in several ways, such as by their geometry, by whether they have envelopes, by the identity of the host organism they can infect, by mode of transmission, or by the type of disease they cause. ... An RNA virus is a virus that either uses RNA as its genetic material, or whose genetic material passes through an RNA intermediate during replication. ... A common alternate meaning of virus is computer virus. ... Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever first described in 1969 in the Nigerian town of Lassa in the Yedseram River valley. ...
Ebola and Marburg viruses may cause a hemorrhagic diathesis and tissue necrosis through direct damage to vascular endothelial cells and platelets with impairment of the microcirculation, as well as cytopathic effects on parenchymal cells, with release of immunologic and inflammatory mediators.
Arenaviridae, on the other hand, appear to mediate hemorrhage via the stimulation of inflammatory mediators by macro-phages, thrombocytopenia, and the inhibition of platelet aggregation.
Ribavirin is a nucleoside analogue with activity against some Arenaviridae and Bunyaviridae (including the viruses that cause Lassa fever, Argentine hemorrhagic fever, and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever) but not against Filoviridae or Flaviviridae.
The discovery of Bear Canyon virus is the first unequivocal evidence that the virus family Arenaviridae is naturally associated with the rodent genus Peromyscus and that a Tacaribe serocomplex virus occurs in California.
Previous studies of wild rodents in coastal southern California (Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura Counties) showed antibody to an arenavirus in dusky-footed and desert woodrats, a brush mouse, California mice, a cactus mouse, deer mice, and western harvest mice (3,9).
The isolation of BCNV from California mice is the first unequivocal evidence that a Tacaribe complex virus occurs in California and that the virus family Arenaviridae is naturally associated with the rodent genus Peromyscus.
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