Rubella is an infectious disease caused by viruses around the world, which is particularly problematic in pregnant women – as it damages the embryo or even leads to stillbirths. To protect against this, there is a vaccination that we already give in childhood as part of a combination vaccination. But rubella disease rates are still high in Africa and Southeast Asia, as the vaccination rate here is the lowest in the world.
The origin of the rubella virus (rubella virus) was previously unknown, because only humans were previously considered the natural host of the virus. But this assumption has now been invalidated by two independent studies that demonstrate viruses similar to the rubella virus in animals: On the one hand, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found the new, so-called “Ruhugu virus” in Cyclops-round leaf bats (Hipposideros cyclops) in Uganda as they examined the animals for coronaviruses.
Independently of this, scientists from the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) found the likewise new “Rustrela virus” when examining three deceased zoo animals – a donkey, a tree kangaroo and a capybara. The researchers also found this in yellow-necked mice – like the one shown in our photo – that came from both the immediate vicinity of the zoo and from the region.
It is an important finding that both novel viruses show similar structures to the rubella virus known to humans. Because this indicates that the human rubella virus once developed from animal viruses – similar to how the current SARS-CoV_2 coronavirus jumped from the animal kingdom to humans. “With this joint discovery, the human rubella virus is no longer the sole representative of an entire family of viruses, more than 200 years after it was first described in 1814,” explains Martin Beer from the Friedrich Loeffler Institute.
“The comprehensive analysis of the two new viruses, but also the search for possible further animal reservoirs and further rubella virus-like pathogens are now an important field of research in order to better understand the origin of the human rubella virus,” continues Beer.