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Temple monkeys: a risk to human health?
Newsdesk
Monkeys inhabiting Hindu and Buddhist temples in south and southeast Asia could be transmitting simian viruses to man, a new study concludes. “Because of their genetic and other similarities to human beings, non-human primates are particularly likely sources of emerging infectious agents that could infect man”, says lead author Lisa Jones-Engel (University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA). She estimates that several million people, including many foreign tourists, come into contact with macaques at temples every year. So far, however, “There are no reports of people falling ill from an infectious agent transmitted from a temple monkey”. Jones-Engel’s team collected blood samples from 39 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)—nearly 10% of the resident monkey population—at a Buddhist temple in Nepal. At least
90% seropositivity was found to simian foamy virus (SFV), rhesus cytomegalovirus, and simian virus 40. All adult macaques, but only a quarter of juveniles, were seropositive for cercopithecine herpesvirus 1. No sample was reactive to simian immunodeficiency virus. SFV is present in saliva and other body fluids of macaques, which, the authors say, “suggests that bites, scratches, and mucosal splashes with macaque body fluids can transmit infection”. Whether foamy viruses are shed in the saliva of infected human beings is unknown, says Maxine Linial (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA). “Studies on virus shedding by people known to be infected with SFVs (or simian type D retrovirus, also shed in macaque saliva) should be done to assess whether human-to-human transmission is possible.”
Nick Lerche (University of California, Davis, CA, USA) adds: “It is sobering to consider the very real possibility that the increased number of people with compromised immune function due to the global spread of HIV, itself the result of a jump from non-human primates to human beings, may be opening the door for other non-human primate viruses to follow the same path in regions where human beings and nonhuman primates coexist”. Feeding macaques is thought to account for most interactions between people and the monkeys, and the likelihood of cross-species transmission could be effectively reduced by limiting contact, Jones-Engel concludes. “It also makes sense to carry out disease surveillance in people who live and work around monkeys”, she adds.
R Kyes
Temple monkeys: a risk to human health?
For more information on temple monkeys see http://www.cdc. gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no06/ 06-0030.htm
Dorothy Bonn
Foreign nationals with HIV face deportation from the UK Concern is growing over a decision by the UK Home Office that allows many HIV-infected individuals receiving antiretroviral treatment in the UK to be deported to their home countries. “We are beginning to see the impact of this decision. It is deeply immoral to deport them now when they cannot get antiretroviral drugs in their home countries. The decision amounts to sending them to their death”, Lisa Power of the UK-based charity Terrence Higgins Trust explained. It is unclear how many people risk being deported. “As a clinician I have a very serious anxiety about the ability of these patients to get the drugs that they need after they have left the UK”, Jane Anderson (Homerton University Hospital, London, UK) told TLID. In May 2005, the UK’s House of Lords rejected a bid by a Ugandan women asylum seeker with HIV/AIDS to stay in the UK. She had pleaded that treatment in the UK could extend her http://infection.thelancet.com Vol 6 July 2006
life. The court ruled that deporting her would not violate her human rights as mentioned in the article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that everyone has the right to life and liberty. The House of Lords noted that a decision in her favour would risk drawing large numbers of individuals with HIV/AIDS into the UK to benefit from the medical services available. However, the Home Office has the discretion to allow these people to live in the UK. The Home Office did not comment when contacted. UK immigration minister Tony McNulty recently told nongovernmental organisations opposing deportation that such an exception would be unfair to people with other serious diseases. Advocacy groups say that the decision is contrary to the UK government’s recent efforts to improve access to HIV/AIDS drugs in Africa. According to Power, access to antiretroviral treatment in resource-poor
countries has begun to improve and individuals receiving antiretroviral treatment in the UK should be allowed to stay in the UK until access to antiretroviral treatments in their home countries becomes universal. Syed Sharaf Ali Shah, a former project director of the AIDS control programme in Pakistan’s Sindh province, also wants the UK Home Office to hold on for a few more years. An even more serious issue, says Shah, is the deportation of HIV/AIDSinfected people from Gulf countries to their home countries, especially India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. “The way in which labourers are tested for HIV in these countries is very humiliating. They are tested without their consent and if they are found to be HIV positive, they are deported directly from the hospital to the airport by the police”, he concluded.
Khabir Ahmad 399
Monkeys inhabiting Hindu and Buddhist temples in south and southeast Asia could be transmitting simian viruses to man, a new study concludes. “Because of their genetic and other similarities to human beings, non-human primates are particularly likely sources of emerging infectious agents that could infect man”, says lead author Lisa Jones-Engel (University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA). She estimates that several million people, including many foreign tourists, come into contact with macaques at temples every year. So far, however, “There are no reports of people falling ill from an infectious agent transmitted from a temple monkey”. Jones-Engel’s team collected blood samples from 39 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)—nearly 10% of the resident monkey population—at a Buddhist temple in Nepal. At least
90% seropositivity was found to simian foamy virus (SFV), rhesus cytomegalovirus, and simian virus 40. All adult macaques, but only a quarter of juveniles, were seropositive for cercopithecine herpesvirus 1. No sample was reactive to simian immunodeficiency virus. SFV is present in saliva and other body fluids of macaques, which, the authors say, “suggests that bites, scratches, and mucosal splashes with macaque body fluids can transmit infection”. Whether foamy viruses are shed in the saliva of infected human beings is unknown, says Maxine Linial (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA). “Studies on virus shedding by people known to be infected with SFVs (or simian type D retrovirus, also shed in macaque saliva) should be done to assess whether human-to-human transmission is possible.”
Nick Lerche (University of California, Davis, CA, USA) adds: “It is sobering to consider the very real possibility that the increased number of people with compromised immune function due to the global spread of HIV, itself the result of a jump from non-human primates to human beings, may be opening the door for other non-human primate viruses to follow the same path in regions where human beings and nonhuman primates coexist”. Feeding macaques is thought to account for most interactions between people and the monkeys, and the likelihood of cross-species transmission could be effectively reduced by limiting contact, Jones-Engel concludes. “It also makes sense to carry out disease surveillance in people who live and work around monkeys”, she adds.
R Kyes
Temple monkeys: a risk to human health?
For more information on temple monkeys see http://www.cdc. gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no06/ 06-0030.htm
Dorothy Bonn
Foreign nationals with HIV face deportation from the UK Concern is growing over a decision by the UK Home Office that allows many HIV-infected individuals receiving antiretroviral treatment in the UK to be deported to their home countries. “We are beginning to see the impact of this decision. It is deeply immoral to deport them now when they cannot get antiretroviral drugs in their home countries. The decision amounts to sending them to their death”, Lisa Power of the UK-based charity Terrence Higgins Trust explained. It is unclear how many people risk being deported. “As a clinician I have a very serious anxiety about the ability of these patients to get the drugs that they need after they have left the UK”, Jane Anderson (Homerton University Hospital, London, UK) told TLID. In May 2005, the UK’s House of Lords rejected a bid by a Ugandan women asylum seeker with HIV/AIDS to stay in the UK. She had pleaded that treatment in the UK could extend her http://infection.thelancet.com Vol 6 July 2006
life. The court ruled that deporting her would not violate her human rights as mentioned in the article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that everyone has the right to life and liberty. The House of Lords noted that a decision in her favour would risk drawing large numbers of individuals with HIV/AIDS into the UK to benefit from the medical services available. However, the Home Office has the discretion to allow these people to live in the UK. The Home Office did not comment when contacted. UK immigration minister Tony McNulty recently told nongovernmental organisations opposing deportation that such an exception would be unfair to people with other serious diseases. Advocacy groups say that the decision is contrary to the UK government’s recent efforts to improve access to HIV/AIDS drugs in Africa. According to Power, access to antiretroviral treatment in resource-poor
countries has begun to improve and individuals receiving antiretroviral treatment in the UK should be allowed to stay in the UK until access to antiretroviral treatments in their home countries becomes universal. Syed Sharaf Ali Shah, a former project director of the AIDS control programme in Pakistan’s Sindh province, also wants the UK Home Office to hold on for a few more years. An even more serious issue, says Shah, is the deportation of HIV/AIDSinfected people from Gulf countries to their home countries, especially India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. “The way in which labourers are tested for HIV in these countries is very humiliating. They are tested without their consent and if they are found to be HIV positive, they are deported directly from the hospital to the airport by the police”, he concluded.
Khabir Ahmad 399