Global Alert For New Virus In Japan: What It Is, What Are Its Symptoms And How Is It Spread | the Chronicle

As if our planet does not have too many problems with bacteria and disease, Japanese researchers at the University of Hokkaido published a study in the trade journal Nature Communication in which he announced that he had found a new virus called Yezo What can infect humans.

The Yezo virus, according to a study by Japanese scientists, is transmitted through the tick bites and causes disease with symptoms, including fever and decrease in platelets and white blood cells, in charge of the fight against foreign substances and diseases.

The first case of the Yezo virus was detected when a 41-year-old man entered a hospital in 2019 complaining of fever and leg pain after being bitten by a tick while walking in a forest in Hokkaido, in Japan.

He was released after receiving treatment for two weeks, however, the patient, after several tests, tested negative for any tick-borne viruses that were known at that time. The following year, another patient was admitted with similar symptoms after also being bitten by a tick with similar characteristics.

Yezo virus: discovered in Japan

Researchers from Hokkaido University, including the virologist from the university’s International Zoonotic Control Institute, Keita Matsuno, performed genetic analysis of blood samples from both patients and discovered the new nairovirus.

This category of virus is called “The Nairobi sheep virus” and includes Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, both also transmitted by tick bites.

The team of virologists has continued to test blood samples from hospital patients with similar symptoms for the virus since 2014.

In these cases, they found traces of the Yezo virus in at least five other patients, all of whom had high fevers, reduced number of platelets and white blood cells. These patients also showed signs of abnormal liver function.

“At least seven people have been infected with this new virus in Japan since 2014, but so far no deaths have been confirmed.” Matsuno said in a press release from Hokkaido University.

Why is it called Yezo Virus?

In the team’s research published in Nature Communications, virologists explained that they named the new virus Yezo, since it is the Japanese historical name of the island of Hokkaido, where the virus was first discovered, and its origin is traced.

By analyzing blood samples taken from wild animals over a period of 10 years from 2010, the researchers found traces of anti Yezo antibodies in raccoons and Sika deer from Hokkaido, which are indigenous to the region. The team too I detect Yezo virus RNA in three main tick species throughout the island in northern Japan.

Matsuno added that although currently there is no death associated with Yezo, testing beyond Hokkaido and in hospitals in Japan is now of critical importance.

Dijo has Nature Communications that “Not all cases of Yezo virus infection that we know of so far have resulted in death, but the disease is very likely to lie beyond Hokkaido, so we urgently need to investigate on its spread. “