New virus discovered in China

Last Updated on September 9, 2024 9:33 am

A new virus has been discovered in China. The virus, known as Wetland Virus (WELV), can spread to humans and infect the brain. In some cases it can cause neurological diseases, said medical scientists.

This information came out in the report of NDTV on Sunday.

The world has come to a standstill due to the Corona epidemic. At the end of 2019, the virus that spread from the city of Wuhan in China killed more than a million people around the world. After about three years, the virus came under control. Then there was the recent outbreak of another virus called Mpox or Monkeypox, which has already spread to at least 13 countries around the world. Vaccination against Mpox is being given in every country.

This time another virus has been found in China, which can be transmitted to the human body by a kind of insect bite and in some cases can cause brain damage.

According to a research report published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the virus was first detected in a 61-year-old patient in Jinzhou, China, in June 2019.

The man fell ill five days after being bitten by a ‘tick’ or ‘brick’ insect in a marshy area in Mongolia. The patient developed fever, headache, vomiting and these symptoms were not relieved by antibiotics.

Several diseases are transmitted to humans through ticks. In addition to WELV, a notable disease is Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.

After the wetland virus was first discovered in the city of Jinzhou, researchers investigated it in detail in northern China. They collected 14 thousand 600 brick insects from different areas. About 2 percent of these insects contain the genetic material of the WELV virus. The RNA of this virus is also found in the body of some animals, such as sheep, horses, pigs and some rodents.

The researchers also collected blood samples from residents of northern China. It can be seen that 12 out of every 640 people have antibodies to that virus. Besides, there are 20 patients infected with tick bites, who have the virus in their body. These patients had symptoms of fever, weakness, headache, vomiting and diarrhea. One of these patients even went into a coma due to the presence of extra white blood cells in the blood.

Laboratory studies show that the virus is capable of damaging the brain and nervous system and can cause death. But after proper treatment at the right time, all the patients recovered.

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