A Beijing-based veterinarian who was confirmed as China’s first human infection case with Monkey B virus (BV) has died. The 53-year-old male vet, who worked for an institution researching on non-human primates, showed early-onset symptoms of nausea and vomiting, a month after he dissected two dead monkeys. The virus, initially isolated in 1932, is an alphaherpesvirus enzootic in macaques of the genus Macaca.
B virus (Cercopithecine herpesvirus 1; BV) is a macaque α-herpesvirus that is similar to the herpes simplex viruses (HSV1 and HSV2) of humans. From an animal health standpoint, BV is not a serious problem in its natural macaque host. However, the fatal effect of zoonotic BV infection in humans has driven the effort to eliminate BV from research macaques. Historically, the case fatality rate in untreated human BV infection has been greater than 70%, a rate similar to untreated HSV encephalitis in humans.