Charles E. Rupprecht

TL;DR: Preliminary antigenic and genetic characterization found that both rabies-related viruses discovered in Russia should be considered as new putative lyssavirus genotypes.

TL;DR: A direct rapid immunohistochemical test was evaluated under field and laboratory conditions to detect rabies virus antigen in frozen and glycerol-preserved field brain samples from northwestern Tanzania and was 100% sensitive and specific.

TL;DR: Irkut virus should be considered as a new genotype with particular relatedness to genotypes 4 and 5, and genotype 4-6, together with Aravan, Khujand and Irkut viruses, present a solid phylogroup of Old World bat lyssaviruses.

TL;DR: It is proposed that life history patterns of many species of temperate-zone bats, coupled with sufficiently long incubation periods, allows for rabies virus maintenance, and the slowing effects of hibernation on metabolic and viral activity maintains infected individuals and their pathogens until susceptibles from the annual birth pulse become infected and continue the cycle.

TL;DR: Protection was inversely related to the genetic distance between the new isolates and traditional rabies viruses, and the WCBV is the most divergent of these lyssaviruses, and neither pre-ex exposure vaccination nor conventional post-exposure prophylaxis provided significant protection.