Question: wha causes riftvally fever?

Dorcas Kamuya answered on 28 Sep 2014:

Hi 226heaa32,
RVF is a viral zoonosis that primarily affects animals such as sheep, cows but can be transmitted and affect humans if infected. Zoonosis refers to disease that can be transmitted to humans from animals; other zoonitic diseases include rabies, anthrax, Avian flu, ebola, HIV, E.coli .

Rift Valley fever is caused by a virus (RVF virus), a member of the Phlebovirus genus, one of the five genera of vector-borne viruses. RVF can be transmitted to humans from animals by handling animal tissue such as during slaughter where animal fluids (such as blood which can get into humans through a cut in the skin); it cans be passed through uncooked meat, or unpasteurized milk. It can also be transmitted through mosquito bites, and sometimes through blood-sucking flies. In animals, RVF causes several diseases leading to high mortality; in humans the disease is not as severe, however a small percentage of people do develop severe forms of the diseases. Symptoms of the mild form of the disease may include flu-like symptoms such as join and muscle pain, neck stiffness, fever.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Rift-valley fever was first characterized in a sheep farm in Rift Valley in Kenya in early 1930’s. I imagine disease might have been in existence for long, but was officially classified then. See a link to the CDC site information about rift valley fever. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/mnpages/dispages/Fact_Sheets/Rift%20Valley%20Fever%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf
Dorcas