New virus kIlls 7 in China, infects 60


Chennai: A new infectious disease caused by a tick-borne virus has killed seven people and infected 60 others in China, official media reported. It has also warned about the possibility of its human-to-human transmission.

State-run Global Times said more than 37 people in East China’s Jiangsu Province contracted with the SFTS Virus in the first half of the year. Later, 23 people were found to have been infected in East China’s Anhui province.

A woman from Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu, who suffered from the virus showed onset of symptoms such as fever, coughing. Doctors found a decline of leukocyte, blood platelet inside of her body. After a month of treatment, she was discharged from the hospital.

At least seven people have died in Anhui and East China’s Zhejiang province due to the virus, the report said.

SFTS Virus is not a new virus. China has isolated pathogen of the virus in 2011, and it belongs to the Bunyavirus category.