RNA Viruses: Double-

stranded, Single-
stranded
Lecture 3
Double-stranded RNA
Viruses
• Reoviridae
• Naked icosahedral capsid
• Linear double-stranded RNA
• Reovirus is an acronym for respiratory enteric
orphan virus
• Infects everything from plants to insects to
mammals
1. Rotaviruses
2. Colorado Tick Fever Virus
Rotaviruses
• 11 double-stranded RNA segments
• Each encode 1 gene
• Triple-layered capsule surrounds the RNA
• Seven subgroups (A-G)
• Only A, B and C infect humans
• Most common cause of viral gastroenteritis in
children
• Spread by fecal-oral route
• Detected by ELISA or latex agglutination from
fecal
material
• Vaccine introduced in 2006, prevented 98% of
severe
Colorado Tick Fever
Virus
• Transmitted by Dermacentor andersoni
• Western US and Canada
• Symptoms include fever, chills, headache,
body ache, malaise
• Biphasic fever
• Most recovery completely, some have CNS
involvement
• Life-threatening illness is rare
• Diagnosis
• Clinical symptoms in endemic area
• CTF RNA, neutralizing antibodies, or IgM in
blood
• Reportable in Arizona, Colorado,
Montana,
Single-Stranded RNA Viruses
• Arenaviridae • Paramyxoviridae
• Bunyaviridae • Picornaviridae
• Caliciviridae • Rhabdoviridae
• Coronaviridae • Togaviridae
• Filoviridae
• Flaviviridae
• Orthomyxoviridae
 Arenaviridae Virus

Lymphocytic
Disease

Lymphocytic
Host

House mouse
Distribution Year
Discovered
Worldwide
choriomeningitis choriomeningitis 1933
• 29 species virus
• Viral hemorrhagic fevers
Junin virus Argentine Drylands Vesper Argentina 1958
• Old World hemorrhagic fever Mouse
• Lymphocytic Machupo virus Bolivian Large Vesper Bolivia 1963
choriomeningitis hemorrhagic Mouse
• 5% of house mice Lassa virus
fever
Lassa fever Natal West Africa 1969
• Lassa Virus Multimammate
• Treatable with Mouse
antivirals Venezuelan Short-tailed Cane Venezuela 1989
hemorrhagic fever
• Diagnosed by ELISA Guanarito virus
Mouse

detecting IgM or IgG Brazilian Brazin 1993

hemorrhagic fever
• Vaccine being Sabia virus Rodent Rodent
Chapare Bolivia 2004
developed hemorrhagic fever
• Rodent- Chapare virus
Lujo hemmorhagic
Rodent
South Africa 2008
transmitted diseases Lujo virus
fever

• Human infection occurs

following contact with
excretions of infected rodent
Bunyaviridae
• Arboviruses: viruses transmitted by • Hantavirus genus
arthropods • Rodent-borne
• Asymptomatic, febrile illness, • Hemorrhagic fever with renal
syndrome
hemorrhagic fever, or encephalitis • Sin Nombre virus
• Rift Valley fever virus • Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome
• Encephalitis and hepatitis • Transmitted by inhalation of
aerosolized mouse urine, saliva, or
• LaCrosse virus and California feces
encephalitis virus • Hypotensive shock and pulmonary
• Encephalitis edema
• Disseminated intravascular coagulation
• Congo hemorrhagic fever virus • 50% mortality
• High mortality
Caliciviridae
• Noroviruses • Sapoviruses
• Gastroenteritis • Hard to distinguish from norovirus
• Drinking water, swimming areas, • Often milder
contaminated food • Primarily affect young children
• Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever and elderly
• No extended immunity • Diagnosis
• Diagnosis • RT-PCR
• More sensitive than EM
• Cannot be grown in culture
• RT-PCR
Coronaviridae
• Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
• High fever, pneumonia, respiratory distress
• 10% mortality
• Causative agent
• SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV)
• Moved from normal animal host to humans
• Transmitted by person-to-person contact via respiratory droplets
• Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV)
• Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
to be
discussed in Lecture 6
Filoviridae
• Marburg and Ebola
• Will cover in week
6
Flaviviridae
• Mosquito-transmitted • Tick-transmitted
• Yellow Fever • Tick-borne Encephalitis
• Dengue Fever • Kyasanur Forest Disease
• Japanese encephalitis • Alkhurma disease
• St. Louis encephalitis • Omsk hemorrhagic fever
• West Nile virus
• Zika virus
Flaviviridae
• Japanese encephalitis • Dengue Fever
• Most common cause of arboviral • 5% mortality
encephalitis • Fever, headache, bone pain
• Emerging pathogen
• Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever
• Influenza-like illness that can
progress to acute encephalitis • Exposure to second serotype
• 30% mortality • Thrombocytopenia, hemorrhage,
shock, death
Flaviviridae
• Yellow fever • St. Louis encephalitis
• Vaccine available • Typically asymptomatic
• Mostly asymptomatic or acute • Fever or meningoencephalitis
infection • 3-20% mortality
• Fever, myalgia, headache, nausea, • Milder in children than adults
vomiting
• 15% enter systemic toxic phase • Transmitted by Culex mosquitos
• Fever, jaundice, and bleeding from
mouth, eyes, nose, stomach, kidney • West Nile virus
failure
• Humans are dead-end host
• 50% mortality
• 80%: asymptomatic
• 20%: fever, headache, fatigue
• Neuroinvasive disease
• Adults over 50
• Meningitis or encephalitis
Orthomyxoviridae
• Influenza viruses • Persistence due to antigenic drift
• Distinguished by structural proteins • Errors in RNA replication
• M: matrix protin • Drastic version is antigenic shift causing
• NP: nucleoprotein new H or N antigens
1) Influenzavirus A • Genetic reassortment
• Subtyped by surface glycoproteins • Adaptive mutation
• H: hemagglutinin • Only in A
• N: neuraminidase
2) Influenzavirus B • Spread by aerosol inhalation
3) Influenzavirus C • Diagnosis
• Nasopharyngeal swabs, washes or aspirates
• Rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs)
• Rapid molecular assay
• Treatment
• Annual vaccine
• Antivirals
Paramyxoviridae
• Parainfluenza
• Mumps
• Measles
• RSV
• Human Metapneumovirus
Parainfluenza Viruses
• Enveloped, helical RNA
• Hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) – viral adhesion
• Fusion (F) – fusion of the virus to cell and infected cell to cell
• Primary cause of respiratory disease in children
• PIV-1: laryngotracheobronchitis (croup)
• PIV-2: milder version of PIV-1
• PIV-3: bronchiolitis and pneumonia
• PIV-4: mild upper respiratory tract infections
• Spread by aerosol inhalation and direct contact
• Best specimens are aspirated secretions and nasopharyngeal washes
taken
early in infection
• Direct detection by PCR, IF, or EIA
Mumps Virus
• Spread by droplets of infected
saliva
• Swelling of the parotid glands
• Infects ductal epithelial cells
• Isolated from saliva, swabs
rubbed over the Stensen’s duct,
urine, and CSF
• RT-PCR
• Acute phase serum sample for
IgM response
Measles Virus
• Previously most common viral
disease in children
• Koplik spots, runny nose and
cough, fever, and rash
• Spready by aerosols (highly
contagious)
• Diagnosis
• Typically clinical
• Can be recovered from
nasopharynx and urine
• Detected by serum neuralization,
EI, IF, and nucleic acid testing
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)
• Most common cause of severe lower respiratory tract disease in
infants and young children worldwide
• No life-long immunity; also severe in older
adults/immunocompromised
• Spread by large-particle droplets and contact with fomites (not
inhalation of aerosols)
• Outbreaks occur yearly, 2-5 months in later winter/spring
• Identified by RT-PCR or rapid antigen testing of nasopharyngeal
swab
specimens
• Difficult to recover virus (very fragile)
Human Metapneumovirus (hMPV)
• First discovered in 2001
• Upper and lower respiratory tract infections in young children
• Leading cause of the cold
• Diagnosed using RT-PCR or IF from nasopharyngeal swabs
Picornaviridae
• Small (30nm), naked
icosahedral
• Large family (over 230 viruses)

1. Enteroviruses
2. Rhinoviruses
3. Hepatitis (Lecture 5)
Enteroviruses
• Polioviruses • Cause a variety of conditions
• Coxsackieviruses • Found worldwide
• Enteroviruses • Spread via aerosol inhalation,
• Echoviruses fecal-oral route, or fomites
• Parechoviruses
Enteroviruses
• Mild nausea and diarrhea
• Can be more severe in neonates
• Specimen collection
• Throat
• Feces
• Rectum
• CSF
• Conjunctiva
• No group antigen
• Identified individually by serum
neutralization
Polioviruses
• Only enteroviruses that has a vaccine
• Eradicated in US in 1979
• Infects the nervous system and intestines
• Paralysis and death possible
• Spread by fecal-oral route or droplets from cough or
sneeze
• Diagnosis
• Stool specimen for highest likelihood of viral isolation
• Detected by PCR
 Coxsackievirus
• Hand, food, and mouth disease
(HFMD)
• Types A5, A10, and A16
(occasionally
enterovirus type 71)
• Malaise, headache, and abdominal
pain
• Painful sores on tongue and soft
palate
• Rash on hands, feet, and buttocks
• Large blisters on feet and palms
• Diagnosis
• Clinical
• Specimen collected from swab of
mouth or blisters
• Culture, PCR, or ELISA
Rhinoviruses
• Closely related to enteroviruses
• More than 100 serotypes
• Causative agent of common cold
(50% of all colds)
• Transmitted by aerosols,
secretions, and fomites
• Infect nasal epithelial cells and
activate inflammatory systems
Rhabdoviridae
• Causative agent of rabies • Diagnosis from animal
• 55,000 deaths annually • Direct IF of brain tissue
• 99% of deaths involve dogs • Postexposure prevention
• Symptoms • Cleaning the would
• Flu-like • Human rabies immune globulin
• Mental status changes: anxiety, • Immunization
irritability, depression • Within a few hours of exposure
• CNS changes: hallucinations, • Prevents 327,000 cases each year
paralysis, excessive salivation,
seizures
• Coma and death
Togaviridae
• Artervirus: not known to infect • Rubivirus
humans • Causative agent of Rubella (German measles)
• Alphavirus • 50% of suspected measles cases are rubella
• Transmitted by mosquitos to humans and • Transmitted by droplets
horses from infected birds • Rash starts on face and spreads to trunk and
• Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) in limbs
eastern US • No rash on palms or soles of feet
• 40% mortality rate; 50% permanent CNS • Congenital infection
damage • Halts or slows cell growth resulting in death or
• Western equine encephalitis (WES) impaired infant
• Less severe version of EEE • Diagnosis by IgM antibodies in serum
• 3% mortality, 30% permanent CNS damage • Effective vaccine exists
• Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) • Eliminated in US in 2004
• Influenza-like in adults, encephalitis in
children
Case Study