Duvenhage virus

{{Short description|Species of virus}}

{{Virusbox

| name = Duvenhage virus

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| parent = Lyssavirus

| species = Lyssavirus duvenhage

| synonyms =

• Duvenhage lyssavirus
• Duvenhage virus

| synonyms_ref = {{cite web |last1=Walker |first1=Peter |title=Implementation of taxon-wide non-Latinized binomial species names in the family Rhabdoviridae |url=https://ictv.global/ictv/proposals/2015.006aM.A.v3.Rhabdoviridae_spren.pdf |website=International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) |access-date=16 September 2019 |language=en |date=15 June 2015 |quote=Rabies virus Rabies lyssavirus rabies virus (RABV)[M13215]}}{{cite web|title=History of the taxon: Species: Lyssavirus duvenhage (2024 Release, MSL #40)|url=https://ictv.global/taxonomy/taxondetails?taxnode_id=202401725&taxon_name=Lyssavirus%20duvenhage|publisher=International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses|access-date=15 March 2025}}

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Duvenhage virus (DUVV) is a member of the genus Lyssavirus, which also contains the rabies virus. The virus was discovered in 1970, when a South African farmer (after whom the virus is named) died of a rabies-like encephalitic illness, after being bitten by a bat.{{cite journal |author1=Tignor G. H. |author2=Murphy, F. A. |author3=Clark, H. F. |author4=Shope, R. E. |author5=Madore, P. |author6=Bauer, S. P. |author7=Buckley, S. M. |author8=Meredith, C. D. |title=Duvenhage Virus: Morphological, Biochemical, Histopathological and Antigenic Relationships to the Rabies Serogroup |journal=Journal of General Virology |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=595–611 |year=1977 |doi=10.1099/0022-1317-37-3-595 |doi-access=free }} In 2006, Duvenhage virus killed a second person, when a man was scratched by a bat in North West Province, South Africa, 80 km from the 1970 infection.{{ cite journal |author1=Paweska, J. T. |author2=Blumberg, L. H. |author3=Liebenberg, C. |author4=Hewlett, R. H. |author5=Grobbelaar, A. A. |author6=Leman, P. A. |author7=Croft, J. E. |author8=Nel, L. H. |author9=Nutt, L. |author10=Swanepoel, R. | title = Fatal Human Infection with Rabies-Related Duvenhage Virus, South Africa | journal = Emerging Infectious Diseases | volume = 12 | issue = 12 | pages = 1965–1967 |date=December 2006 | pmid = 17326954 | doi = 10.3201/eid1212.060764 | url = http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/12/12/pdfs/06-0764.pdf | pmc=3291369}} He developed a rabies-like illness 27 days after the bat encounter, and died 14 days after the onset of illness. A 34-year-old woman who died in Amsterdam on December 8, 2007, was the third recorded fatality. She had been scratched on the nose by a small bat while travelling through Kenya in October 2007, and was admitted to hospital four weeks later with rabies-like symptoms.{{cite journal | author = van Thiel, P. P. | author2 = van den Hoek, J. A. | author3 = Eftimov, F. | author4 = Tepaske, R. | author5 = Zaaijer, H. J. | author6 = Spanjaard, L. | author7 = de Boer, H. E. | author8 = van Doornum G. J. | author9 = Schutten M. | author10 = Osterhaus, A. | author11 = Kager, P. A. | title = Fatal Case of Human Rabies (Duvenhage Virus) from a Bat in Kenya: The Netherlands, December 2007 | journal = Eurosurveillance | volume = 13 | issue = 2 | pages = 1–2 | date = January 2008 | doi = 10.2807/ese.13.02.08007-en | pmid = 18445390 | id = Article ID 8007 | url = http://www.eurosurveillance.org/images/dynamic/EE/V13N02/art8007.pdf | access-date = 2012-02-24 | archive-date = 2016-03-04 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304195130/http://www.eurosurveillance.org/images/dynamic/EE/V13N02/art8007.pdf | url-status = dead }}

Microbats are believed to be the natural reservoir of Duvenhage virus. It has been isolated twice from insectivorous bats, in 1981 from Miniopterus schreibersi, and in 1986 from Nycteris thebaica, and the virus is closely related to another bat-associated lyssavirus endemic to Africa, Lagos bat virus.