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Published Date: 2012-08-05 10:05:07
Subject: PRO> Bunyavirus disease, human - China (HE), susp.
Archive Number: 20120805.1228923
BUNYAVIRUS DISEASE, HUMAN - CHINA (HENAN) SUSPECTED
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A ProMED-mail post
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
Date: Fri 3 Aug 2012
Source: The Epoch Times [edited]
A deadly tick-borne disease has struck Xinyang City in central China's Henan Province. The hospital is overcrowded with patients ... Media workers have urged city authorities to disclose details of the epidemic.
A tick-bitten villager from Shangcheng County died at China's No. 154 People's Liberation Army Hospital on 31 Jul 2012 after his family borrowed more than 80 000 yuan (USD$12,500) for treatment. The hospital is dedicated to tick-borne disease treatment, and has been overcrowded with inpatients.
During Ye's hospitalization, relatives kept updating his condition on the Internet with microblogs, such as: "Ye has been in a coma for several days. High fever persists. His life signs keep weakening. The accumulated medical expense is skyrocketing! Every day, there are tick-bitten people arriving at the No. 154 People's Liberation Army Hospital in Xinyang City..."
Another microblog reads: "In Qilichong Village alone, 7 people have died. The hospital is now jam-packed with tick-bitten patients. The situation is urgent. More people are likely to become victims... Residents' health and lives are seriously threatened."
A physician interviewed by The Epoch Times admitted that the number of tick-bitten patients has increased quite a bit. When asked about Ye's case, he 1st tried to evade the question, but after repetitive inquiries he said Ye "had a high fever for 5 days before being sent to the hospital, and he died after being discharged from the hospital."
Amid grief and indignation, Ye's family said that villagers cannot afford the treatment for tick bites, and they were forced to borrow money for Ye's treatment after using up all their savings.
The outbreak has not been reported by any medical organizations or government officials. The Epoch Times made several phone calls to the Disease Control Center of Xinyang City and Shangcheng County, but nobody answered. A clerk at the Wanggang Village Health Center said his superiors wouldn't let him say too much.
Xinyang City has been hit by tick-borne disease in recent years. Last year [2011], the No. 154 People's Liberation Army Hospital was also overcrowded with patients who had contracted the disease. A physician told The Epoch Times that there were 4 deaths among the patients of one doctor alone. But the doctor in charge of the emergency room said that the actual death toll was confidential and should not be revealed to outsiders.
[Byline: By Fang Xiao
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[The etiological agent in these cases may be Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS) virus, a newly identified member of the genus phlebovirus in the Bunyaviridae family (see ProMED-mail archive no. 20110317.0853). SFTS virus has been isolated from blood of 2 patients and from _Haemaphysalis longicornis_ ticks collected from dogs. The virus is present in Henan province and in at least 5 other provinces; in 2010, the presence of the virus was confirmed in 171 patients from 6 provinces in China. It resulted in at least 36 deaths by September 2010. Major clinical symptoms in these patients included fever, thrombocytopenia [low blood platelet count causing slower clotting], gastrointestinal symptoms, and leukocytopenia [decrease in the number of white blood cells in the blood, placing individuals at increased risk of infection], and there was a high initial case fatality rate of 30 per cent. One hopes that there will be a diagnosis of the etiological agent involved in the current cases, and that it will become available publicly.
References
Yu XJ, Liang MF, Zhang SY, Liu Y, Li JD et al. 2011.
Fever with thrombocytopenia associated with a novel bunyavirus in China.
N Engl J Med Apr 21;364(16):1523-32.
Zhang YZ, Zhou DJ, Xiong Y, et al. 2011.
Hemorrhagic fever caused by a novel tick-borne Bunyavirus in Huaiyangshan, China [in Chinese].
Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi 2011 Mar 32(3):209-220.
A HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map showing the location of Xinyang city in Henan province can be accessed at http://healthmap.org/r/2*CA. - Mpd. TY]
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