Chinese veterinarian dies from rare Monkey B virus - The Washington Post

Jul 19, 2021

A man in China has died after contracting a rare infectious disease from primates, known as the Monkey B virus, Chinese health officials revealed in a report Saturday.

The Monkey B virus, or herpes B virus, is prevalent among macaque monkeys, but extremely rare — and often deadly — when it spreads to humans.

There have been fewer than 100 reported human infections of herpes B since the first case of primate-to-human transmission in 1932, many of them in North America, where scientists tend to be more aware of the disease, Iwata said.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there has only been one documented case of an infected human spreading the virus to another person.

Chinese health authorities said discovery of the Monkey B virus in a human suggests that it might “pose a potential zoonotic threat to occupational workers,” adding that it’s necessary “to strengthen surveillance in laboratory macaques and occupational workers.” By Monday, news of the veterinarian’s death had been viewed more than 110 million times on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Last week, Dallas County health officials in Texas reported the case of a man with a rare case of monkeypox, which can also be transmitted when people are bitten or scratched by an animal.