Japanese scientists from Hokkaido University, together with
colleagues from Sapporo City Hospital, Nagaoka Red Cross
Hospital, Center for Infectious Diseases at the Institute of
Public Health, National Institute of Infectious Diseases at the
University of Nagasaki, and the University of Liverpool (UK)
reported about the discovery of an unknown orthonairovirus
capable of transmitting to people through mits bites, cause
various symptoms of fever, reduce the level of platelets and
leukocytes in the blood and provoke liver destruction.
The virus was named Yezo (YEZV), according to a study
published in the journal Nature Communications. Since 2014,
at least seven people have been infected with it. As the
analysis of viruses isolated from blood samples of patients
showed, scientists were faced with a new orthonairovirus
from the genus Orthonairovirus of the order Bunyavirales,
which include the causative agents of the Crimean-Congo
hemorrhagic fever, Nairobi disease and Dugbe fever. The new
pathogen is most closely related to the Sulin virus from
Romania and the Tamda virus identified in Uzbekistan and
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China several years
ago. According to the authors of the work, it was these
arachnids that acted as carriers. "All cases of infection with
the YEZV virus, which we know today, did not provoke
deaths, but there is a possibility that the disease will be
detected outside Hokkaido, so an urgent need to investigate
its spread," the scientists warned.
Although knowing the tradition of Japanese scientists to
create bioweapons based on insects. It is likely that this virus
is another echo of the experiments of the Second World War,
which has already been written about in our Digest.
