Human Gyrovirus: A New Emerging Infection in Humans?

Abstract

Several new emerging virus infections have become public health problems at present, so all practitioners need to be able to recognize and understand these new infections. Of the several newly reported viral infections, human gyrovirus infection is a very interesting emerging case. This virus can be found in many human body fluids and tissues. It was first reported by Sauvage et al. (1), who successfully identified this new virus in a skin swab sample from a healthy donor and mentioned its similarity to the chicken anemia virus (CAV) (1). Up to 4 % of healthy humans can harbor this virus (2). For example, Maggi et al. reported finding the virus in human blood, especially in cases involving organ transplantation and HIV infection (3). Similar findings were reported by Biagini et al. (4). Chu et al. also detected this virus in human stool (5). Thus, human gyrovirus clearly is detectable in human beings. However, the interesting question about this virus is whether it may cause disease, a possibility that is now being widely discussed. Phan et al. recently reported finding this virus in a stool sample collected from a patient with unexplained diarrhea (6). A molecular biology report has indicated that this new virus might disturb the apoptosis process in human beings (7). The exact clinical problems relating to the human gyrovirus infection both acute and chronic forms therefore present interesting issues for further research in infectious medicine.