ABSTRACT
B virus [also known as cercopithecine herpesvirus 1 (CeHV-1), herpesvirus simiae, monkey B virus, or herpes B virus] was rst identied in 1932. The patient was a young physician named William Brebner who died after being bitten by a monkey during research on poliomyelitis-causing virus. The symptoms comprised localized erythema, lymphangitis, lymphadenitis, and transverse myelitis. An ultra-lterable agent showing similarity to herpes simplex virus (HSV) in cell culture was obtained from neurologic tissues during autopsy, and this isolate was termed W virus initially, and B virus subsequently [1]. By 2002, about 50 human cases of B virus infections had been identied, with a high proportion of these patients succumbing to the disease in a relatively short period after acquiring the virus.
