Talk:Viral hemorrhagic fever

Notable Outbreaks
The current outbreak of Dengue in Brazil as reported by BBC news ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7322654.stm) could probably do with a metion in this section —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.105.162.252 (talk) 15:50, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

The "Notable VHF outbreaks" is in serious need of citations. I am no virologist so I won't even try. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.30.147.91 (talk) 02:20, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

incorrect facts
The article on viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) states that the disease is caused by members of four RNA virus families: Arena-, Filo-, Bunya-, and Flaviviridae. In fact, VHF is caused by members of FIVE RNA virus families; infection by members of the Alphaviridae family can also cause VHF, although it is somewhat unusual. Chikungunya virus (CHIK) is an example of an Alphavirus associated with VHF during the most extreme and severe cases. In addition, it is likely that the incidence of Alphavirus associated VHF is grossly underestimated, largely due to frequent misdiagnosis. CHIK, for example, is often diagnosed as Dengue - a VHF-associated member of the Flaviviridae family.

Part of my MS thesis deals with VHF caused by the alphavirus Sindbis (SB) in a mouse model of infection. Details of my research can be found in the following research paper:

Non-pathogenic Sindbis virus causes hemorrhagic fever in the absence of alpha/beta and gamma interferons. Ryman KD, Meier KC, Gardner CL, Adegboyega PA, Klimstra WB. Virology. 2007 Nov 25;368 (2):273-85. Epub 2007 Aug 2.

76.107.5.24 (talk) 21:47, 2 April 2008 (UTC) Kathryn Meier

My own mistake...
Don't I feel an idiot?! Copying and pasting leads to yet another mistake... the family is Togaviridae... not alphviridae... genus is alphavirus... started out with genus... changed to family, but without checking carefully... managed to fuse the two words - way to go me! always proofread! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.107.5.24 (talk) 22:54, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Why Togaviridae?
The link to Togaviridae lists encephalitis as the resulting disease of this family. Why go against all other published facts on VHF by saying it is caused by 5 families just beacuse one person claims their masters thesis included a Togaviridae that rarely causes VHF? Maybe it is just a VHF-like illness. This disease eassily spreads. Stay away from any one who has it. 64.206.154.254 (talk) 18:14, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

its called ebola
more likely to die than live. you are in danger if you have the disease in your body it can't be in butterflies or snakes etc. unless injected. 6×2=12

Additional external link?
Would this be a useful external link to include? It maps epidemiology of viral hemorrhagic fevers in Africa. Viral Hemorrhagic Fever data visualization

ARSeattle (talk) 20:15, 6 May 2019 (UTC)

Footnote issue
I noticed citation 13 does not back up the claim it's supposed to, in the "Biowarfare potential" section. If you click the link in the footnote, it should jump right to p. 286 of an ebook, but it doesn't say anything about China attempting to weaponize a VHF; doesn't mention China at all.

I thought there was some way to flag a questionable citation on the article itself, but I'm not sure how to do that. I'm still new to this, apologies if my formatting's wrong.

EDIT: I think I figured out how to flag. Added a "failed verification" tag next to the footnote in the text.

WKPorter (talk) 06:45, 17 April 2020 (UTC)


 * I have just removed this from the article altogether:
 * According to Soviet defector Ken Alibek, Soviet scientists concluded China may have tried to weaponize a VHF virus during the late 1980s but discontinued to do so after an outbreak.
 * The source, Alibek's book, does not support that claim -- neither on the cited page nor elsewhere. Whether Soviet scientists actually came to this conclusion is a different question; but if they did, we need a different source. Renerpho (talk) 11:37, 29 October 2023 (UTC)