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Scientists find relatives of rubella in bats, wild mice, and zoo animals. The virus that causes rubella, or German measles, finally has company. Scientists had never identified close relatives of the virus, leaving it as the only member of its genus, Rubivirus. But with a report in this week’s issue of Nature, rubella has gained a family. One of its two newfound relatives infects bats in Uganda; the other killed animals from three different species in a German zoo and was found in wild mice living nearby as well. The findings strongly suggest that at some point in the past, a similar virus jumped from animals to humans, giving rise to today’s rubella virus, the researchers say. Although neither of the new viruses is known to infect humans, the fact that a related virus jumped species raises concerns that the two viruses or other, as-yet-unknown relatives could cause human outbreaks. “We would be remiss not to be concerned, given what’s going on in the world today,” says epidemiologist Tony Goldberg of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, a senior author of the study. Highly infectious, the rubella virus usually causes rashes and fever, but in pregnant women it can lead to miscarriages, stillbirth, and babies born with congenital rubella syndrome, which includes deafness and eye, heart, and brain problems. An estimated 100,000 newborns are affected by the syndrome annually, mostly in Africa, the western Pacific, and the eastern Mediterranean; in many other countries the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine has made it a rarity.
The paper is “really important because there’s very little understanding of where rubella came from,” says molecular anthropologist Anne Stone of Arizona State University, Tempe. “It was all by itself without any close relative.” The finding underscores the importance of the One Health approach, which recognizes that the health of people is closely connected to that of animals and the environment, she says. Both viruses bear close watching, researchers say. It’s “really interesting” that rustrela was able to infect both placental and marsupial mammals, and “was actively jumping between species,” says evolutionary virologist Edward Holmes of the University of Sydney. That flexibility could spell trouble, says vaccinologist Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic. “Who knows, if it could move from mice to other mammals, could it move to humans?” he asks. “In the end, the bugs win.”
Study published in Nature (October 7, 2020):
