Walsh & Hoyt: Flaviviridae

The family of viruses called Flaviviridae is composed of small enveloped viruses that contain single-stranded, (+)-sense RNA genomes that have 11,000 nucleotides. After entering a host cell, virions replicate on the endoplasmic reticulum of the cell and then are released by exocytosis or cell lysis. The flaviviruses (from the Latin flavus, meaning ""yellow,"" for the yellow fever virus, the prototype virus in this family) are transmitted to humans by a variety of arthropods, mainly mosquitoes and ticks. They thus are one of the three families of viruses also known as arthropod-borne viruses, or arboviruses, and they are sometimes called ""group B arboviruses."" The other arboviruses belong to the family Bunyaviridae, described in an earlier section of this chapter, and the family Togaviridae, described later.