Sealpox

{{Virusbox

| parent = Parapoxvirus

| species = incertae sedis

| virus = Sealpox virus

}}

{{Infobox medical condition (new)

| name = Sealpox

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| field = Dermatology

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Sealpox is a cutaneous (skin) condition caused by a Parapoxvirus, usually affecting seal handlers who have been bitten by infected harbor or grey seals.{{cite book |author1=James, William D. |author2=Berger, Timothy G. |title=Andrews' Diseases of the Skin: clinical Dermatology |publisher=Saunders Elsevier |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7216-2921-6 |display-authors=etal}}{{rp|394}} First identified in 1969,{{cite journal|title=Some Clinical Aspects of Seal Pox in Captive Atlantic Harbor Seals|jstor=20094269|journal=The Journal of Zoo Animal Medicine|volume=5|issue=4|pages=27–30|author=Dunn, J. Lawrence|author2=Spotte, Stephen |year=1974|doi=10.2307/20094269}} it wasn't unequivocally proven to be transmissible to humans until 2005,{{cite journal | vauthors = Clark C, McIntyre PG, Evans A, McInnes CJ, Lewis-Jones S | title = Human sealpox resulting from a seal bite: confirmation that sealpox virus is zoonotic | journal = Br. J. Dermatol. | volume = 152 | issue = 4 | pages = 791–3 | date = April 2005 | pmid = 15840117 | doi = 10.1111/j.1365-2133.2005.06451.x | s2cid = 38466772 }} though such transmission had been reported at least as early as 1987.{{cite journal|title=An Epizootic of Seal Pox in Pinnipeds at a Rehabilitation Center|jstor=20094962|journal=Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine|volume=20|issue=3|author=Hastings, Barkley E.|author2=Lowenstine, Linda J. |author3=Gage, Laurie J. |author4= Munn, Robert J. |pages=282–290|date=September 1989|quote=Abstract: An epizootic of cutaneous nodules occurred in three species of pinnipeds at the California Marine Mammal Center during the summer of 1986.}} It causes lesions that closely resemble those caused by orf. As many as 2% of seals in marine mammal rehabilitation facilities in North America may have it.{{cite journal | vauthors = Roess AA, Levine RS, Barth L, Monroe BP, Carroll DS, Damon IK, Reynolds MG | title = Sealpox virus in marine mammal rehabilitation facilities, North America, 2007-2009 | journal = Emerging Infect. Dis. | volume = 17 | issue = 12 | pages = 2203–8 | date = December 2011 | pmid = 22172454 | pmc = 3311194 | doi = 10.3201/eid1712.101945 }}