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14 - Borna disease virus – a threat for human mental health?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2010

Liv Bode
Affiliation:
Project 23: Bornavirus Infections, Robert Koch-Institut, Nordufer 20, D-13353 Berlin, Germany
Hanns Ludwig
Affiliation:
Institute of Virology, Free University of Berlin, Königin-Luise-Strasse 49, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
G. L. Smith
Affiliation:
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London
W. L. Irving
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
J. W. McCauley
Affiliation:
Institute for Animal Health, Compton, Berkshire
D. J. Rowlands
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
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Summary

Mania is sickness for one's friends, depression for one's self. Both is chemical … a weakening in the blood.’

From ‘Collected Poems’ by Robert Lowell (1917–1977), American poet and Pulitzer prize winner

with a documented history of manic-depressive illness.

‘Dabei kommt natürlich alles darauf an, dass wir für die betreffenden Seuchen ganz zuverlässige Methoden zum Nachweis der Krankheitserreger besitzen. Insbesondere gilt dies für diejenigen Kranken, welche sich im frühesten Stadium der Krankheit befinden und für die sogenannten Bazillenträger, weil diese beiden Kategorien von Kranken erfahrungsgemäβ am meisten zur Verschleppung der Seuchen beitragen. Auf jeden Fall bildet eine sichere Diagnose gewissermaβen den Schlüssel für die moderne Seuchenbekämpfung.’ [‘Of course it all depends on the availability of reliable methods to detect the causative agents of the pestilence in question. This is particularly true for those patients in very early stages of the disease and for the so-called “carriers”, as experience tells us that these two categories of patients are the main contributors when it comes to the spread of the pestilence. In any case, a reliable diagnosis is the key for the modern battle against pestilence.’]

From a speech given by Robert Koch 1908 at a convention of most of the MDs of Berlin honouring his return from a successful expedition to East Africa, where he investigated the sleeping disease

(published in Dtsch Med Wochenschr no. 8).

PROLOGUE

Unlike related viruses infecting both man and animals (for example, influenza virus and rabies virus), in which zoonotic pathways are well established, Borna virus infections of man have only been reported recently and their possible zoonotic transmission remains unknown.

Type
Chapter
Information
New Challenges to Health
The Threat of Virus Infection
, pp. 269 - 310
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2001

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