For the first time, a new tick-borne virus that can cause fatal brain infections has been discovered in humans.
Officials suspect the unidentified man from China became infected after being bitten by ticks while visiting a park in Mongolia.
The virus, also known as the Wetland Virus (WELV), has now been tested and has infected nearly two dozen people.
The potentially deadly infection is spread by ticks and farm animals and is one of many diseases transmitted by tiny parasites, such as Lyme disease and malaria.
It was first identified in the 61-year-old patient at the hospital during treatment in Jinzhou in 2019. But doctors only released the report this month.
Officials believe the unidentified man from China became infected after being bitten by ticks while visiting a park in Mongolia
Removing a tick from your own skin is crucial to preventing the risk of infection or contracting other diseases, including Lyme disease. The NHS has a four-step routine for safely identifying and removing ticks
Five days after the visit, the symptoms he had developed: fever, headache, vomiting, poor appetite, and infected lymph nodes. He was prescribed antibiotics.
Only when the symptoms did not subside did the doctors realize that the man had a viral infection and not a bacterial one.
Blood tests then identified a previously unknown orthonarirovirus, a group of related viruses, many of which are transmitted by ticks.
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), a known orthonairovirus, can be fatal in up to 40 percent of cases.
People become infected after coming into contact with blood or tissue from infected cattle.
It can also be transmitted from person to person through bodily fluids or between hospital patients if medical equipment is not properly sterilized.
Following this discovery, researchers collected approximately 14,600 ticks in northern China.
They found that five different tick species could carry the virus, but the Haemaphysalis concinna tick was the most common.
After testing hospital patients who had developed a fever similar to the unknown 61-year-old within a month of a tick bite, 20 patients tested positive for the virus.
People infected with WELV most often experienced dizziness, headache, back pain, nausea and diarrhea.
However, tests have also shown that the virus can cause tissue damage and blood clotting problems.
One patient with WELV infection became comatose and showed high white blood cell counts around the brain and spinal cord.
According to the researchers, all patients recovered after treatment and were discharged within four to 15 days.
Laboratory tests in mice later showed that WELV could cause serious, often fatal infections that affected multiple organs, including the brain and nervous system.
This suggests that the virus may be mild in some cases, but can cause more serious health problems in more vulnerable patients.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicinethe researchers said: ‘Taken together, these data suggest that a newly discovered orthonairovirus, WELV, [pathogenic] in humans…and circulates among humans, ticks, and various animals in northeastern China.
‘By improving surveillance and detection of novel orthonairoviruses, we can better understand the impact these viruses have on human health.’
