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21 Mar 2022

Setting it Straight: Japanese Encephalitis part 1: arboviruses, togaviruses, flaviviruses and bunyaviruses

With cultural sensitivities in mind, we no longer give viruses names that refer to their place of discovery. Classified as a member of the arbovirus (arthropod-borne) family, Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) has been circulating in the Pacific countries to our north for a very long time. All the arboviruses that we know to be causing human disease in Australia are mosquito-borne, though sandflies and ticks, particularly on colder landmasses, are also ‘vectors’. The tick-born encephalitis viruses include Russian spring/summer Encephalitis (RSSE) and louping-ill virus (LIV) which, a cause of disease and death in economically important sheep and grouse populations in Scotland, was the subject of my PhD from the University of Edinburgh.