A new virus transmitted by tick bites, capable of attacking the human brain and causing neurological damage. The discovery comes from China, where a group of researchers discovered the so-called Wetland (Welv), a virus currently identified in at least 18 people. Patient zero was a 61-year-old man, bitten by a tick in a large wetland area of Mongolia and then admitted to a hospital in Jinzhou, in the province of Liaoning.
Wetland, what are the symptoms?
The case dates back to 2019 and was analyzed in a study by the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, published in recent days in the “New England Journal of Medicine”. The 61-year-old manifested very intense symptoms: headache, high fever, vomiting and multi-organ dysfunction. The Wetland virus is part of the group of viruses transmitted specifically by ticks (orthonairovirus), researchers collected and analyzed almost 14,600 ticks and found the Wetland virus in five species. Under the lens especially ‘Haemaphysalis concinna’ which lives mainly in China, Russia and Central Europe, and tested positive for the new virus in the majority of cases. The researchers then analyzed blood samples
Confirmed cases and treatments
Acute Welv infection was identified in 17 additional patients from Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces of China: “These patients presented with nonspecific symptoms including fever, dizziness, headache, malaise, myalgia, arthritis and back pain, and less frequently skin spots and localized lymph node enlargement.”
Fortunately, Welv infection is curable, as the study authors point out: “One patient presented with neurological symptoms. Serological evaluation of convalescent samples obtained from 8 patients showed Welv-specific antibodies that were 4-fold higher than those in acute samples. All patients recovered after receiving antivirals, antibiotics, or immunoglobulins, with no long-term effects.”