http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1838377320080418?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
Scientists have identified a new virus that causes bleeding and shock and killed at least one man in a remote area of Bolivia.
It appears to be highly deadly and, like other related viruses, is carried by rodents, the researchers report in Friday's issue of the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens.
They have named the new virus the Chapare arenavirus, and say it is related to the viruses that cause Lassa fever and other rare viruses such as Junin, Machupo, Guanarito, and Sabia viruses. They have about a 30 percent fatality rate.
But it is genetically distinct.
"It is quite a unique virus and we are suggesting that it be considered as a new species of arenavirus," Stuart Nichol of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who helped study the virus, said in a telephone interview.
The 22-year-old man was one of several who died of hemorrhagic fever near Cochabamba, Bolivia. A team of Bolivian health authorities and U.S. Navy health experts from Lima, Peru, got the samples.
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