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Volume 4, Number 2—June 1998

Perspective

Wild Primate Populations in Emerging Infectious Disease Research: The Missing Link?

Nathan D. Wolfe*, Ananias A. Escalante†, William B. Karesh‡, Annelisa Kilbourn‡, Andrew Spielman*, and Altaf A. Lal†
Author affiliations: *Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; †Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Public Health Service, Chamblee, Georgia, USA; ‡Wildlife Health Sciences, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, New York, USA.

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Table

Routes of pathogen exchange between human and nonhuman primates

Route of exchange Pathogen Direction of exchange Evidencea Reference
Animal bite Herpes B Nonhuman primate to human E 6b
Monkeypox Nonhuman primate to human E 7
Fecal-oral Poliovirus Human to nonhuman primate L 2b
Poliovirus Chimpanzee to chimpanzee E 8
Hunting, food prep 
& eating Ebola Nonhuman primate to human E 9
Nasal secretions Mycobacterium leprae Among primates P, L 10b
Respiratory droplet Tuberculosis Human to nonhuman primate L 11b
Vector-borne Malaria Both directions L,E 12b
Filaria Both directions L,E 8b
Water-mediated Dracunculiasis Human to nonhuman primate L 13
Schistosomiasis Nonhuman primate to human E 14
Xenotransplantation SV40 Nonhuman primate to human Ec 15b

aL = laboratory; E = epidemiologic ; P = evidence that parasites live naturally in multiple primate hosts.
bEvidence reviewed.
cThe only current evidence for xenotransplantation includes SV40 spread through vaccine production.

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