A brain radio (illustration). – F. Durand / SIPA
Eight fatal cases of sickness from Borna were newly identified in
Germany in patients with previously unexplained viral encephalitis, researchers say in a study published Wednesday in The Lancet Infectious Deseases. All of the patients diagnosed with the virus died between 1999 and 2019 and lived in the south of the country.
Borna disease, which owes its name to a German city, was described at the end of the 18th century. It is an inflammation of the brain and non-purulent meninges affecting in particular horses and sheep. The virus’s reservoir host is the white-toothed two-colored shrew, a small insectivorous wild animal with a pointed nose, sometimes mistaken for a mouse.
Signs of brain disease
Symptoms in infected people start with fever, headache and confusion. They continue with signs of brain disease such as unsteady gait, memory loss, seizures and progressive loss of consciousness. In the newly identified cases, the patients deteriorated rapidly after being admitted to hospital, resulting in a deep coma and death. The eight patients died within 16 to 57 days of hospitalization.
The authors, however, admitted a limit to their study: they could not establish an exact route of transmission from shrews to humans. However, the information available on 14 patients shows contact with animals, life in rural or suburban areas, agricultural work and other outdoor activities for most of them. Researchers therefore suggest that screening tests should be performed more often in the event of rapidly developing nervous system disorders of unknown cause. The goal is to be able to establish the true extent of the infection in humans.
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