Читать книгу Basic Virology - Martinez J. Hewlett - Страница 96

While molecular principles of classification are of obvious importance to molecular biologists and molecular epidemiologists, other schemes have a significant amount of value to medical and public health professionals. The importance of insects in the spread of many viral diseases has led to many viruses being classified as arthropod‐borne viruses, or arboviruses. Interestingly, many of these viruses have general or specific similarities, although many arthropod‐borne viruses are not part of this classification. The relationships between two groups of RNA viruses that are classified as arboviruses are described in some detail in Part IV, Chapter 13.

Viruses can also be classified by the nature of the diseases they cause, and a number of closely or distantly related viruses can cause diseases with similar features. For example, two herpesviruses, Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), cause infectious mononucleosis, and the exact cause of a given clinical case cannot be fully determined without virological tests. Of course, completely unrelated viruses can cause similar diseases too. Still, disease‐based classification systems are of value in choosing potential candidates for the etiology of a disease. A general grouping of some viruses by similarities of the diseases caused or organ systems infected was presented in Table 3.1.