New Delhi: China, a hotspot for the coronavirus in 2019, which drove the whole world into terrible isolation wards, has again discovered a new virus that can cause brain diseases. The virus named- Wetland virus (WELV)- was first detected in China's Jinzhou province in June 2019. Some media reports claimed that the person had visited a park in Westland where he got ticked by the virus.
According to a report published by The New England Journal of Medicine on September 4, a patient was admitted with persistent fever and multiple organ dysfunction after a tick bite at Wetland Park in Inner Mongolia in 2019. The scientists claimed that next-generation sequencing in the patient revealed infection with a previously unknown Orthonairovirus. The virus was later designated as Wetland virus (WELV).
Wetland virus found in 17 patients
Subsequently, scientists launched a massive sampling of the people who either visited the same park or complained about the symptoms the doctors discovered in the infected person. "Acute WELV infection was identified in 17 patients from Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning, China, by means of reverse-transcriptase–polymerase-chain-reaction assay," according to the report.
Symptoms of Wetland virus
Although all the patients did not exhibit identical symptoms, the scientists found nearly all of them had common complaints of fever, dizziness, headache, malaise, myalgia, arthritis, and back pain. Some also had petechiae-- small, round, red or purple spots that appear on the skin or mucous membranes-- and localized lymphadenopathy-- a condition where swollen lymph nodes are only found in one area of the body, such as the neck or armpit.
Wetland virus can impact brain
However, the doctors found a strange case wherein a patient had neurologic symptoms. "Common laboratory findings were leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and elevated d-dimer and lactate dehydrogenase levels. Serologic assessment of convalescent-stage samples obtained from 8 patients showed WELV-specific antibody titers that were 4 times as high as those in acute-phase samples," according to the report.
Also, the study also underscored the virus- WELV RNA- was detected in five tick species and in sheep, horses, pigs, and Transbaikal zokors (Myospalax psilurus). All the samples were collected from the northeastern region of China. "The virus that was isolated from the index patient and ticks showed cytopathic effects in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Intraperitoneal injection of the virus resulted in lethal infections in BALB/c, C57BL/6, and Kunming mice. The Haemaphysalis concinna tick is a possible vector that can transovarially transmit WELV," as per the report.
