Mayaro virus: another emerging pathogen to monitor

A virus called Mayaro virus, named for the place where it was discovered in Trinidad, has recently been recorded in several outbreaks in South America. Scientists warn that Mayaro virus, like Zika virus, is a mosquito-borne pathogen that could balloon into a large epidemic issue in the near future.

Mayaro virus is an Alphavirus of the Togaviridae virus family.

Symptoms of Mayaro include fever, headache, rash, joint pain, similar to dengue fever and is often confused with dengue during diagnosis.

Most recently, a group of scientists from University of Florida believe that they discovered a case of Mayaro fever in a young Haitian boy who was originally diagnosed as having typhoid. However, when a blood sample was taken and examined, the scientists found Mayaro virus (and dengue virus). This is the first reported case in the country and indicates the pathogen's spread. This discovery has prompted the Centers for Disease Control to consider Mayaro virus to be an emerging pathogen to monitor.


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Carolyn Oliver

Sources:
1. ScienceDaily
2. NPR
3. Figueiredo, Luiz Tadeu Moraes. Emergent arboviruses in Brazil. Rev. Soc. Bras. Med. Trop. [online]. 2007, vol.40, n.2 [cited  2016-10-12], pp.224-229. Link.