Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Early Viral Entry Assays for the Identification and Evaluation of Antiviral Compounds
Published on: October 29, 2015
Zoonotic viral diseases and the frontier of early diagnosis, control and prevention
1Department of Virology, BPRC, Rijswijk, and the Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands. heeney@bprc.nl
Abstract:
Public awareness of the human health risks of zoonotic infections has grown in recent years. Currently, concern of H5N1 flu transmission from migratory bird populations has increased with foci of fatal human cases. This comes on the heels of other major zoonotic viral epidemics in the last decade. These include other acute emerging or re-emerging viral diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), West-Nile virus, Ebola virus, monkeypox, as well as the more inapparent insidious slow viral and prion diseases. Virus infections with zoonotic potential can become serious killers once they are able to establish the necessary adaptations for efficient human-to-human transmission under circumstances sufficient to reach epidemic proportions. The monitoring and early diagnosis of these potential risks are overlapping frontiers of human and veterinary medicine. Here, current viral zoonotics and evolving threats are reviewed.
Related Concept Videos
Smallpox
Rabies
Viral Recombination
Infectious Diseases and Their Occurrence
Investigation of Disease Outbreaks
Human Virome