Filoviruses

The filoviruses (Lake Victoria marburgvirus and ebolaviruses) are etiological agents of severe hemorrhagic fevers with extraordinary high case-fatality rates for humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and probably other animals.Many institutions and experts consider them as potential threats to humanity because they could be used as biological weapons. This book summarizes in detail the contemporary knowledge of filoviruses and diseases they cause. Almost the entirety of the open literature on filoviruses, covering all major scientific and clinical fields, is referenced and summarized in this text, including most of the conference abstracts, book chapters, dissertations, government reports, patents, theses, and journal publications in many languages.The book will provide a robust source of knowledge for filovirologists, virologists and scientists in general, clinicians, students, journalists, and biodefense professionals.

"The filoviruses (Lake Victoria marburgvirus and the ebolaviruses) are etiological agents of severe hemorrhagic fevers with extraordinary high case-fatality rates for humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and probably other animals.This review summarizes in detail the contemporary knowledge of filoviruses and the diseases they cause. The entirety of the open literature on filoviruses, covering all major scientific and clinical fields, is referenced and summarized in this text, including most of the conference abstracts, book chapters, dissertations, government reports, patents, theses, and journal publications in many languages. In total, almost 4,500 references (~3,350 citations and ~1,150 subcitations , such as abstracts, reprints, or translations) are provided on a CD-ROM as an accompanying reference source for the book - roughly three times the number of references that can be recovered using PubMed searches (~1,450). For ease of retrieval by the reader, all references are cited with original titles in the original spelling, first author names, full journal titles, and issue numbers where possible. The text of this book and the accompanying reference resource will be updated in the future, and thus will provide a robust source of information for filovirologists, other virologists and scientists in general, clinicians, students, journalists, and biodefense professionals. TOC:Summary.- Preface.- Introduction.- Definition of Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers.- Taxonomy and Evolution of Filoviruses.- Biosafety Considerations.- Biological Weapons and Biosecurity Concerns.- History and Epidemiology.- Geographic Distributions/Serosurveys.- Clinical Picture.- Pathology.- Isolation and Cultivation.- Ultrastructure and Morphogenesis.- Molecular Biology of Filoviruses and Pathogenesis of Filovirus Infections.- Prevention and Outbreak Control.- Laboratory Diagnosis.- Treatment.- Appendix.- Acknowledgements.- References.- Additional References."

History of filoviral disease outbreaks.- Clinical presentation of filoviral disease.- Filoviral disease pathology.- Geographic distribution of filoviruses: serological surveys.- Ecology of filoviruses: search for reservoirs.- Cultivation of filoviruses.- Molecular characteristics of filoviruses.- Laboratory diagnosis of filoviral disease.- Outbreak containment.- Inactivation of filoviruses and disinfection protocols.- Vaccine development.- Treatment of filoviral disease.- Appendix: Members of the Filoviridae Study Group, ICTV.