Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Wild monkeys with killer herpes are breeding like crazy in Florida

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 68 posts

Re: Wild monkeys with killer herpes are breeding like crazy in Florida

#21

Post by yakshaving_jgt »

FreeFull wrote: post #8
zafka wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be more inclined to fund a vaccination program if possible.

There is no herpes vaccine. It's hard to develop one, due to the way the virus evades the immune system.

There are a few promising technologies in the works though.

The helicase-primase inhibitor Pritelivir is more effective than Acyclovir and related nucleoside analogues. It is also understood that the efficacy of both drugs accumulates.

A few labs are working on CRISPR therapeutics for HSV, most notably Keith Jerome's work at Fred Hutch.

Another company, Phylogica, are taking a different approach. I'm not exactly sure of the mechanism.

https://phylogica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/181206_In-v...

n.b. If anyone here suffers from HSV (statistically, many of you do), consider ordering Pritelivir from Japan. It is marketed under the brand Amenalief, and it's for a different strain of HSV so you would be taking it off-label. Usual disclaimers apply; I'm neither a doctor, nor a lawyer, nor responsible for what you do.

Re: Wild monkeys with killer herpes are breeding like crazy in Florida

#22

Post by yakshaving_jgt »

daveslash wrote: post #20

I might be excessively critical, but I don't like these two sentences in the article: - "... a type of herpes lethal to humans." - "But in humans, McHV-1 can cause a flu-like illness that can progress..." I'm not clear -- is this always lethal (as I understand the first sentence to be) or is there some survival rate (as I understand the second sentence to be). I haven't yet found any clarification on McHV-1 online ye…

80% mortality rate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpes_B_virus

Re: Wild monkeys with killer herpes are breeding like crazy in Florida

#23

Post by deadfall »

I'm actually from that area and recently been back to take the glass bottom boat tour. The monkey's are pretty illusive and usually stay away from humans and live in the Silver Springs state park, which is next to the Ocala national forest (second largest nationally protected forest in the US). I remember the guide telling us only a few people have died from contact. In those cases were reseacher/scientist that had been studying the monkeys and had been urinated on (in the face in one case). The monkey's do bring tourist dollars to a pretty poor economic area.

Re: Wild monkeys with killer herpes are breeding like crazy in Florida

#24

Post by will_brown »

ntumlin wrote: post #2

Don't take this as me wanting it to happen, but what would it take for the decision to be made to kill these monkeys, and who would make it? Is there a state or federal agency that's ever determined an animal to be a threat to people in an area to the degree that they then tried to wipe it out? Does it matter that the monkeys got put here because some company thought tourists would like them?

>Is there a state or federal agency that's ever determined an animal to be a threat to people in an area to the degree that they then tried to wipe it out?

In Florida alone that has happened with pythons in the everglades and lionfish in Florida oceans (at least south Florida).

Edit: and African snails. And in a roundabout way mosquitos, but of the lot are not invasive to Florida.

Re: Wild monkeys with killer herpes are breeding like crazy in Florida

#25

Post by will_brown »

honkycat wrote: post #10
ntumlin wrote: post #2

Don't take this as me wanting it to happen, but what would it take for the decision to be made to kill these monkeys, and who would make it? Is there a state or federal agency that's ever determined an animal to be a threat to people in an area to the degree that they then tried to wipe it out? Does it matter that the monkeys got put here because some company thought tourists would like them?

IMO this is the most pragmatic solution. Why keep around an invasive species that carries a deadly virus?

Because the solution is typically implemented with a bounty program which is known to result in the intentional release of more of the invasive species to collect more rewards.

Re: Wild monkeys with killer herpes are breeding like crazy in Florida

#29

Post by herogreen »

If you want to learn more about viruses and (some) of their roles in evolution of species, I recommend you the book "Virolution". (Thanks to the HN commenter that suggested it in a comment I read months ago). This article is an example of one case that the book mention: two species that have diverged recently can "compete" using viruses.

Re: Wild monkeys with killer herpes are breeding like crazy in Florida

#30

Post by ethbro »

daveslash wrote: post #20

I might be excessively critical, but I don't like these two sentences in the article: - "... a type of herpes lethal to humans." - "But in humans, McHV-1 can cause a flu-like illness that can progress..." I'm not clear -- is this always lethal (as I understand the first sentence to be) or is there some survival rate (as I understand the second sentence to be). I haven't yet found any clarification on McHV-1 online ye…

Very few things are always lethal. Or always safe.

For context, the current Ebola Zaire outbreak in northeast DRC has about 60% mortality.

Post reply on HN