New virus passed via tick bites emerges in China, seven killed so far

Global Times
Wed, 05 Aug 2020 19:27 UTC

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Super mosquito with 20-times bigger body compared with common ones

A new type of virus, which is likely to be passed to be infected after bite by ticks, is emerging in China, with more than 60 people infected and killed at least seven.

According to media reports, more than 37 people in East China's Jiangsu Province have contracted with the virus - SFTS Virus in the first half of the year; and later 23 people was found infected in East China's Anhui Province.

Wang, a woman in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu who suffered from the virus showed onset of symptoms such like fever, coughing and doctors found decline of leukocyte, blood platelet inside of her body.

After a month of treatment, Wang was discharged from hospital. But the virus has reported at least seven killed in Anhui and East China's Zhejiang Province.

SFTS Virus is not a new virus. China has isolated pathogene of the virus in 2011, and it belongs to Bunya virus category. Virologists believed it maybe passed to human being by ticks, and that the virus can be transmitted between humans.

Sheng Jifang, a doctor from the first affiliated hospital under Zhejiang University said that the possibility of human to human transmission could not be excluded; patients can pass the virus to other via blood or mucous.

Doctors warned that tick bites is the major transmission route, as long as people remain cautious, there's no need to over panic over such virus contagion.

Comment: RT provides more details:

The current case fatality rate of the re-emerging disease is between approximately 16 and 30 percent, according to the China Information System for Disease Control and Prevention.

While the infection is primarily transmitted through tick bites, transition between humans cannot be excluded, Sheng Jifang, a doctor from a hospital under Zhejiang University, told the Global Times, explaining that it could be passed through blood or mucous.

A 2015 outbreak of the same virus in Japan and South Korea had a mortality rate of more than 30 percent in both countries. The virus is known to be particularly harmful for older or immunocompromised people.

The doctors also warn that tick bites are a major transmission route not only for SFTS, but other infections as well. They say there is no reason to panic, however, if people exercise caution.

In 2018, the World Health Organization included SFTS on its list of the diseases prioritized for research together with the likes of Ebola, SARS and Zika. Those viruses were singled out due to their high potential to cause a public health emergency and lack of efficacious drugs or vaccines against them.

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