Non-Ebola Filoviruses: Potential Threats to Global Health Security

• Published in: Viruses Vol. 16; no. 8; p. 1179
• Main Authors: Munyeku-Bazitama, Yannick, Edidi-Atani, Francois, Takada, Ayato
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 23.07.2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Animals; Bats; Disease Outbreaks; Disease transmission; Ebola virus; Ebolavirus; Ebolavirus - pathogenicity; Ebolavirus - physiology; Epidemics; Fatalities; Fever; Filoviridae; Filoviridae - pathogenicity; Filoviridae Infections - epidemiology; Filoviridae Infections - virology; Filovirus; Genomes; Global Health; Hemorrhagic fever; Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola - epidemiology; Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola - transmission; Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola - virology; Host range; Humans; Infectious diseases; Marburg disease; Marburg virus; non-Ebola filovirus; Pathogenicity; Pest outbreaks; Public health; Ravn virus; Reston virus; Review; RNA polymerase; RNA viruses; Sudan virus; Vaccines; Viruses; Zoonoses - epidemiology; Zoonoses - virology; Mozambique; South Sudan; United States > US; Philippines; China; Sudan; Italy; Uganda; Sierra Leone; Congo-Democratic Republic of Congo; Kenya; Spain; Sudan virus; Ravn virus; Marburg virus; Mengla virus; Dehong virus; Bundibugyo virus; Bombali virus; Filovirus; Lloviu virus; non-Ebola filovirus; Reston virus; Taï Forest virus
• ISSN: 1999-4915; 1999-4915
• DOI: 10.3390/v16081179

Filoviruses are negative-sense single-stranded RNA viruses often associated with severe and highly lethal hemorrhagic fever in humans and nonhuman primates, with case fatality rates as high as 90%. Of the known filoviruses, Ebola virus (EBOV), the prototype of the genus , has been a major public health concern as it frequently causes outbreaks and was associated with an unprecedented outbreak in several Western African countries in 2013-2016, affecting 28,610 people, 11,308 of whom died. Thereafter, filovirus research mostly focused on EBOV, paying less attention to other equally deadly orthoebolaviruses (Sudan, Bundibugyo, and Taï Forest viruses) and orthomarburgviruses (Marburg and Ravn viruses). Some of these filoviruses have emerged in nonendemic areas, as exemplified by four Marburg disease outbreaks recorded in Guinea, Ghana, Tanzania, and Equatorial Guinea between 2021 and 2023. Similarly, the Sudan virus has reemerged in Uganda 10 years after the last recorded outbreak. Moreover, several novel bat-derived filoviruses have been discovered in the last 15 years (Lloviu virus, Bombali virus, Měnglà virus, and Dehong virus), most of which are poorly characterized but may display a wide host range. These novel viruses have the potential to cause outbreaks in humans. Several gaps are yet to be addressed regarding known and emerging filoviruses. These gaps include the virus ecology and pathogenicity, mechanisms of zoonotic transmission, host range and susceptibility, and the development of specific medical countermeasures. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on non-Ebola filoviruses (Bombali virus, Bundibugyo virus, Reston virus, Sudan virus, Tai Forest virus, Marburg virus, Ravn virus, Lloviu virus, Měnglà virus, and Dehong virus) and suggest some strategies to accelerate specific countermeasure development.