New tick-borne virus that can cause flu-like illness discovered in China

Scientists in China have identified a previously unknown tick-borne virus that can cause flu-like illness, fatigue and gastrointestinal symptoms, according to a new study.The newly discovered virus, the Asian longhorned tick nairovirus (ALTNV), which is part of the orthonairovirus group, has also been found to cause thrombocytopenia (reduced blood platelet counts) and laboratory evidence of liver-cell injury or inflammation.Since 2009, Chinese researchers have been tracking patients with unusual illnesses, including severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), according to Dr.Sharon Nachman, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital in New York.“Thrombocytopenia is low platelet count, so those patients bled, and it had about a 30% mortality, which is quite high,” she told Fox News Digital.

“So, they kept following those patients.”Many of the cases were linked to Dabie bandavirus (DBV), a tick-borne hemorrhagic fever, but it was not the most common virus.After extensive testing of blood samples and viral fragments, researchers identified the new virus, ALTNV, which is genetically distinct from DBV.Researchers from the State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity in Beijing identified the virus in 10.4% of 3,163 patients who had been bitten by ticks.Patients who had both ALTNV and DBV were more likely to have respiratory issues and kidney complications.Seven (18.4%) of these patients died during the course of the study.“The cocirculation of ALTNV and DBV in the same areas, coupled with their shared tick vector, underscores the need for improved differential diagnosis between infections with these viruses in regions where SFTS is endemic,” the authors concluded.The findings were published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.“The big picture is that ticks carry lots of viruses,” Nachman said.

“We’re getting smarter at identifying those viruses.And when one blood sample is negative, it’s i...