Researchers say that a new tick-borne disease discovered in China is infecting dozens of people

Chinese researchers say they have identified a new disease transmitted by ticks.

In a study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers wrote that they had identified a tick-borne disease called the Alongshan Virus (ALSV).

The virus was identified after a 42-year-old woman from Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China, went to a local hospital complaining of a fever and headache in 2017. This woman – who had a history of tick bites, according to researchers – showed signs of a tick-borne disease called encephalitis virus or TBEV. But, according to the authors of the study, "neither the RNA of TBEV nor antibodies against the virus were detected".

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Additional tests (the researchers used genome sequencing, in particular) would later conclude that the woman was infected with ALSV. Once the pathogen was identified, the researchers also found that about 90 other people living in the same area in Mongolia were also infected with bluetongue virus. They also wrote that these people had a history of tick bites.

The patients were then treated with certain antiviral and antibiotic drugs, which NPR identified as ribavirin and benzylpenicillin sodium, respectively.

"The symptoms usually go away after six to eight days of treatment and all patients recover completely," Quan Liu, one of the authors of the study, told the publication.

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In the United States alone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified at least 16 different tick-borne diseases, including Lyme disease, tularemia, babesiosis and Rocky Mountain fever, the last was recently hospitalized. old boy in Kentucky.

With respect to ASLV, NPR reports that the disease was only found in Inner Mongolia and that it is specifically transmitted by the ticks of Ixodes persulcatus. Mosquitoes in the area are also thought to be carriers of the disease. At present, it is not clear if patients contract ticks or mosquitoes.

The CDC recommends carefully checking ticks after being outdoors, especially in summer, when the tick season is at its peak. In addition to checking the clothes and taking a shower after entering, the CDC suggests checking under the arm, in and around the ears, in the belly button and around the waist.