According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), herpes B virus, also known as Cercopithecine herpesvirus 1 or B-virus, is a common infection in monkeys and other non-human primates. Although it produces almost no symptoms in monkeys, in humans the disease produces severe and even fatal encephalomyelitis. In many cases, symptoms progress from local site reaction, to flu-like illness, to encephalomyelitis over the course of several days.
Local Site Reaction
Herpes B is often, but not always, acquired through bites or scratches from an infected animal. In some cases, explain the authors of a 2003 report in Emerging Infectious Diseases, blisters appear at the site of the original wound on or around the time other symptoms develop. The blisters do not necessarily resemble other kinds of herpes blisters, and they are not seen in every case.
Flu-Like Illness
According to a 2002 report by the National Institutes of Health B Virus Working Group, many people with herpes B report flu-like symptoms including fever, fatigue, muscle pain and headache preceding the onset of encephalomyelitis. In some cases, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, hiccups, conjunctivitis and sinusitis have been reported. Lymph nodes that receive drainage from the part of the body that served as the original portal of entry for the virus may be tender and swollen.
Encephalomyelitis
The onset of neurologic symptoms signals that the virus has reached the brain and spinal cord. Early neurological symptoms include extreme sensitivity to touch, double vision, uncoordinated movements, difficulty swallowing, mental confusion, agitation and muscle weakness. Over a few days, patients develop full-blown encephalomyelitis (inflammation of the brain and spinal cord), including seizures, paralysis that moves progressively upward along the body, and coma. When paralysis reaches the level of the diaphragm, patients require mechanical ventilation to prevent death due to respiratory failure. Until 1987, when the antiviral drug acyclovir was introduced, more than 80 percent of patients died. Even now, patients who survive often have serious, permanent neurological disabilities.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: B Virus (Cercopithecine herpesvirus 1) Infection
- Emerging Infectious Diseases; B-Virus (Cercopithecine herpesvirus 1) Infection in Humans and Macaques: Potential for Zoonotic Disease; J.L. Huff and P.A. Barry; February 2003
- Clinical Infectious Disease; Recommendations for prevention of and therapy for exposure to B virus (cercopithecine herpesvirus 1); National Institutes of Health B Virus Working Group; October 2002
