2008 Public Lecture Series
A R C H I V E D
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Viruses, Animals & People: Travelers on the Zoonotic Disease Highway
Viruses cause some of the most prevalent, debilitating and lethal human infections, and are among the most important threats to the public health. Viruses can be maintained by transmission from human to human, or by transmission within animal populations that serve as reservoirs for human infections (zoonotic diseases). Those infections maintained in animal populations but transmitted to people are among the oldest but also most recently recognized illnesses. Get a broad overview of zoonotic diseases - their diversity and importance to public health - and learn in detail how rabies, a classic example, has reemerged. Rabies is the oldest known zoonosis, as references to it exist in the earliest recorded histories. Conventional methods of domestic animal vaccination and post-exposure rabies treatment for humans are still the stalwarts of control. Innovations promise further reduction of this ancient scourge. These include: wildlife vaccination programs using baits laced with genetically engineered oral vaccine; bat exclusion and roost relocation from sites with high bat/human interaction; aggressive public education about risky bat encounters; and transgenic technologies such as those that produce rabies-specific antibodies and rabies vaccine antigens in tomato and tobacco plants.
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Charles Trimarchi, M.S.
Mr. Trimarchi is chief of the Laboratory of Zoonotic Disease and Clinical Virology (ZDCV), which contributes in many ways to the detection of viruses of public health significance in human clinical and animal specimens. He oversees research and service programs associated with such zoonotic diseases asWest Nile virus and rabies, and with human viral infections such as influenza and HIV. Other studies in ZDCV laboratories range from the population genetics of mosquito vectors of disease to the detection of the calicivirus that causes large outbreaks of intestinal illness recently plaguing the cruise ship industry. As longtime director of Wadsworth 's Rabies Laboratory, his primary research interests are the development of methods to detect that virus, and the study of the natural history of rabies in bats. He participates in local, state and national committees that develop rabies control guidelines, coordinate multi-agency efforts to establish animal disease control, and enhance preparedness of public health laboratories to respond to natural and biodefense-related emergencies.