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Scientists in China have identified a previously unknown tick-borne virus that can cause flu-like illness, fatigue and gastrointestinal symptoms, according to a new study.
The newly discovered virus, the Asian longhorned tick nairovirus (ALTNV) — which is part of the orthonairovirus group — has also been found to cause thrombocytopenia (reduced blood platelet counts) and laboratory evidence of liver-cell injury or inflammation.
Since 2009, Chinese researchers have been tracking patients with unusual illnesses, including severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), according to Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital in New York.
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“Thrombocynopenia is low platelet count, so those patients bled, and it had about a 30% mortality, which is quite high,” she told Fox News Digital. “So they kept following those patients.”
Many of the cases were linked to Dabie bandavirus (DBV), a tick-borne hemorrhagic fever — but it was not the most common virus.
After extensive testing of blood samples and viral fragments, researchers identified the new virus, ALTNV, which is genetically distinct from DBV.
Researchers from the State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity in Beijing identified the virus in 10.4% of 3,163 patients who had been bitted by ticks.
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Patients who had both ALTNV and DBV were more likely to have respiratory issues and kidney complications. Seven (18.4%) of these patients died during the course of the study.
“The cocirculation of ALTNV and DBV in the same areas, coupled with their shared tick vector, underscores the need for improved differential diagnosis between infections with these viruses in regions where SFTS is endemic,” the authors concluded.
The findings were published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“The big picture is that ticks carry lots of viruses,” Nachman said. “We’re getting smarter at identifying those viruses. And when one blood sample is negative, it’s important to say, maybe there was a new virus there, and let’s look for it.”
Symptoms and treatment
Illness from ALTNV can initially resemble the flu, causing fever, muscle aches, fatigue and sometimes respiratory symptoms.
Although ALTNV infection can cause low platelet counts, the study did not link the virus alone to severe bleeding or deaths. The fatal cases involved patients who were also infected with DBV, which causes severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome.
Because tick-borne viral symptoms can overlap with many infections, Nachman emphasized the importance of identifying the specific virus.
“Effective antivirals exist for flu, but not for many tick-borne viruses, including the newly identified one,” she said.
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For most patients, supportive care is given to help manage symptoms — “but it’s also about being smart and not giving patients the wrong medication,” Nachman noted. “And we certainly don’t want to use antibiotics because those only work for bacteria, not for viruses.”
Preventing tick bites
Nachman shared the best practices she recommends to families looking to avoid tick bites.
“Wear the right clothing — meaning long pants, tucking them into your socks — and use tick repellents on your skin if you’re an adult or on your clothing if you’re a young child,” she advised.
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It’s also important to be on the lookout for ticks on the skin, Nachman said: “The longer the tick is on your skin, the more it’s engorged, the more it’s likely to pass an infection to you. So removing them after you’ve gone hiking or walking on the beach will be really important.”
While the Asian longhorn tick is not yet seen in the U.S., Nachman noted that there are “lots and lots of other ticks, and those ticks carry other diseases.”
“I don’t want to say one tick is worse than another tick — it’s rather all about the diseases they carry and who you are,” she said.
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“So if you’re a healthy adult and you get babesiosis, you often get better without any medications. But if you’re an immune-compromised adult, you’re going to be quite sick.”
“It’s not really about the ticks — it’s about the patient. Who are you? What’s your underlying illness if you have any? How old are you and how healthy are you?”
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