[Review] Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, an emerging tick-borne zoonosis

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging haemorrhagic fever that was first described in rural areas of China. The causative agent, SFTS virus (SFTSV), is a novel phlebovirus in the Bunyaviridae family. Since the first report in 2010, SFTS has been found in 11 provinces of China, with about 2500 reported cases, and an average case-fatality rate of 7·3%. The disease was also reported in Japan and Korea in 2012; Heartland virus, another phlebovirus genetically closely related to SFTSV, was isolated from two patients in the USA.

Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - July 22, 2014 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Quan Liu, Biao He, Si-Yang Huang, Feng Wei, Xing-Quan Zhu Tags: Review Source Type: research