Novel filoviruses: indication of a global threat or cause to reassess our risk perception

In 1967, Marburg virus (MARV), a Filovirus from Filoviridae family is firstly discovered. Followed by Ebola virus (EBOV) and Sudan virus (SUDV) that previously known as responsible in severe human health. Despite of comprising different genus, these viruses have similar clinical pattern: hemorrhagic fever and multi organ failure. To date, there are novel filoviruses has been discovered: Bombali virus, Lloviu virus, Mengla virus, Tapajos virus, Fiwi virus, Kander virus, Huangjiao virus, Oberland virus, Xiland virus, Lotschberg virus, Blue spotted goatfish filovirus, John dory filovirus from diverse hosts all over the world with genome-based studies. The finding emphasizes the possibility of future global threat. Geographic distribution of the viruses among the world with known cases of autochthonous filovirus diseases in bats are within 9.1-100% in Australia, 1.4-100% in Asia, 2.8-14.3% in Central America, 0.4-9.5% in Africa, and 12.2-36.5% in Europe. Given the much more wide-spread distribution of filoviruses that is being revealed by genomic and serological studies, researchers are expected to increasingly detect these viruses also outside areas that have been classically considered as filovirus endemic regions.
(INV)