Scientists are warning of a new tick-borne disease called Wetland virus (WELV) that was recently discovered in China.
A member of the orthonairovirus genus of viruses, WELV previously infected a man in Inner Mongolia, China, in 2019, but it was not identified until this new study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week.
The 61-year-old man, who was bitten by a tick at a wetland park, sought medical attention for “persistent fever and multiple organ dysfunction,” according to the study.
A team of researchers from the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology isolated the virus from that patient and later identified it as WELV.
The study findings noted that the team used laboratory testing to detect the virus in 17 other patients in China whose symptoms included fever, headache, dizziness, muscle pain, fatigue, back pain, arthritis, swollen lymph nodes, and neurologic issues.
Some also had petechiae, which are spots on the skin caused by bleeding from capillaries.
The researchers found that eight of the patients who had recovered had four times as many WELV-specific antibodies as those who had not yet recovered.
After receiving antiviral medications, antibiotics or immunoglobulin therapy, all the patients recovered without any long-term health effects.
The Wetland virus is similar to the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a virus that causes fever, headache, muscle pains, vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding into the skin and liver failure in severe cases, according to the study findings.
