A new tick-borne virus that can trigger deadly brain infections has been discovered in humans for the first time.
Officials believe the unidentified man, from China, got infected after he was bitten by ticks when visiting a park in Mongolia.
Dubbed wetland virus (WELV), tests have since shown it has now infected nearly two dozen people.
Spread by ticks and farm animals, the potentially fatal infection joins a long roster of diseases passed by tiny parasites, like Lyme disease and malaria.
It was first detected in the 61-year-old hospital patient while being treated in Jinzhou in 2019. But medics have only released the report this month.
Officials believe the unidentified man, from China, got infected after he was bitten by ticks when visiting a park in Mongolia
Getting rid of a tick from your own skin is crucial to avoid the risk of infection, or contracting other diseases including Lyme disease. The NHS has a four-step routine to help safely spot and remove ticks
His symptoms, which included a fever, headache, vomiting, poor appetite, and infected lymph nodes, developed five days after the visit and he was prescribed antibiotics.
It was only when they failed to subside that doctors realised the man was suffering a viral infection rather than a bacterial one.
Blood tests then identified a previously unknown orthonairovirus, a group of related viruses, many of which are transmitted by ticks.
Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), one better-known orthonairovirus, can prove fatal in up to 40 per cent of cases.
People become infected after contact with blood or tissue of infected livestock.
It can also spread between humans through bodily fluids or among hospital patients if medical equipment is not properly sterilised.
Following this discovery, researchers collected around 14,600 ticks across Northern China.
They found that five different tick species could carry the virus. But but the Haemaphysalis concinna tick was most common.
After testing hospital patients who had developed a similar fever to the unidentified 61-year-old, within a month of a tick bite, they found 20 were positive for the bug.
People with WELV infections most commonly suffered dizziness, heaches, back pain, nausea and diarrhoea.
But tests also showed the virus could even cause tissue damage and blood clotting issues.
One WELV-infected patient slipped into a coma and showed a high level of white blood cells around the brain and spinal cord.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers said: ‘Taken together, these data suggest that a newly discovered orthonairovirus, WELV, is [pathogenic] to humans … and circulates among humans, ticks and various animals in northeastern China.
‘Improving surveillance and detection for emerging orthonairoviruses will allow a better understanding of the effect that these viruses have on human health.’
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