Laboratory Infections With Arboviruses Including Reports of Two Infections With Kunjin Virus

Murray Valley Encephalitis Virus Infection in Mosquitoes and Domestic Fowls in Queensland, 1974

“…Kunjin was isolated repeatedly at Charleville. Its close relation to West Nile virus (Westaway, 1965) and its incrimination as the cause of laboratory infections (Allan et al, 1966) have brought it under consideration as a possible cause of disease in Australia. Serological studies in the Murray Valley of Victoria in 1974 gave evidence of past infection with Kunjin virus in hospital patients, and several patients with encepahiltis or minor illness developed antibody in higher titre to Kunjin than to MVE virus, raising the possibility that Kunjin might have caused the infection (Doherty, Carley, Filippich, White and Cust, unpublished observations).…”

Approaches for the Development of Rapid Serological Assays for Surveillance and Diagnosis of Infections Caused by Zoonotic Flaviviruses of the Japanese Encephalitis Virus Serocomplex

“…However, in some infections acquired through blood transfusion, symptoms were not observed for up to 22 days [18]. After a laboratory-acquired infection of the Australian WNV subtype, KUNV, the infected individual developed symptoms 9 days after the presumed infection date [19]. Less than 1% of WNV infections result in neurological disease, which can be fatal [20–23].…”

“…While the exact time from the bite of a WNV-infected mosquito to detectable levels of circulating viral RNA in the patient's blood is not known [25], an early study involving the inoculation of terminally ill cancer patients with Egyptian strains of WNV, indicated that virus could be detected in the blood one to two days postinfection [26]. Following the laboaratory-acquired infection of the individual with KUNV, the virus was isolated 8–10 days postinfection [19]. Screening of viraemic blood donors in the USA by Busch et al (2008), revealed persistence of viral RNA for about 19 days, as determined by nucleic acid amplification testing [25].…”