Heads Up - SFTS Virus

[MurrayM]

Discovered in 2009...tick related Asian virus...carried by wild, domesticated, and companion animals...quick genetic variations...human to human transmission has occurred...human mortality rates of variants range from 6.8% to 86%...

https://www.nature.com/articles/s12276-021-00610-1

 

[MurrayM]

Also known as Dabie Bandavirus:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_fever_with_thrombocytopenia_syndrome

 

[MurrayM]

Japan...2020...one sick cat...two veterinary staff became infected...one was hospitalized...they were wearing gowns, masks, and gloves...suspected route of infection through eyes, either from airborne particles or touching eye.

Nature is always spinning those roulette wheels.

Hoping this virus doesn't land on easy human to human transmission and high mortality rate at the same time!

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/12/19-1513_article

 

[Peter B]

Jeeeze, Murray, please go do some fishing - anything to stop you gurgling the iNet...

 

[MurrayM]

Jeeeze, Murray, please go do some fishing - anything to stop you gurgling the iNet...

Sorry...don't fish!

I know. Too much information is a bad thing, but, when you're reading something there can be a fleeting reference which leads you down unexpected paths. My bad.

Don't want people to become complacent

 

[BruceK]

Sorry...don't fish!

I know. Too much information is a bad thing, but, when you're reading something there can be a fleeting reference which leads you down unexpected paths. My bad.

Don't want people to become complacent

I`ll see you and raise you a very nasty Hendra Virus: https://www.who.int/health-topics/hendra-virus-disease#tab=tab_1

 

[MurrayM]

I`ll see you and raise you a very nasty Hendra Virus: https://www.who.int/health-topics/hendra-virus-disease#tab=tab_1

I'll see your 7 known human Hendra cases and raise you:

As of 31 December 2018, a total of 13,259 SFTS patients were recorded, including 11,995, 396, and 866 cases who were respectively reported from China, Japan and South Korea, as well as 2 cases retrospectively identified in Vietnam. Of all SFTS cases, 1161 died, leading to an overall case fatality rate (CFR) of 8.76%, with the highest CFR observed in Japan (27.02%)

and

The disease was first identified in China in 2009 but retrospectively traced back to human cases in 2007 [3,4]. South Korea and Japan both reported their first cases in 2013, and were traced retrospectively to 2010 in South Korea [5–7].

Tick-to-human transmission is the primary route by which people are infected with SFTSV, and Haemaphysalis longicornis (H. longicornis) ticks act as the main transmission vector [8–10]. H. longicornis is native to East Asia and has established populations in the Australasian and Western Pacific Regions [11–13].

Very recently, this tick species has been reported in the United States, first observed to infest the sheep in New Jersey and then identified in seven states and the suburb of New York City...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/22221751.2020.1748521

How does that saying go again? "Just because you aren't paranoid doesn't mean they aren't watching"

 

[MurrayM]

Fascinating things, these viruses.

Nature is always spinning 4 virus roulette wheels;

1) Can it cross from animal to human?

2) Can it pass from human to human?

3) How contagious is it?

4) What is the mortality rate?

Like a virus lottery where the numbers are continuously coming.

That's where this kind of virus is worth watching, because of how the tick can get blood from different hosts with different strains of SFTS and then those different strains randomly swap out chunks of genetic material resulting in even more strains.

(The link below goes waaaaay into the weeds for those interested in or capable of understanding the scientific minutiae).

It is well known that tick is one of the important transmission vectors of bunyavirus, and SFTSV could exist stably in the tick for long-term, thus the ticks have access to the host for a larger span of time and space during their life cycle.

If a tick, which bites hosts, carries different genotypes of virus, infection with different genotype SFTSVs at the same time may occur, which provides conditions for the emergence of the reassortants. It is understandable that the tick may be a potential appropriate source of SFTSV reassortant.

Here, it could be speculated that the BAB reassortants in Liaoning originated from the infection of ticks with both the genotype A and genotype B SFTSV strains (simultaneously) in Liaoning in 2011, resulting in the generation of BAB reassortant, and then, as a vector, the ticks promoted the extensive spread of the BAB reassortants. We also noticed that some strains were found to be involved in both recombination and reassortment.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590053621000203

 

[Group9]

"Now I'm not trying to put down your American black widow spider, but an Australian funnel-web spider can kill a man in 3 seconds, just by looking at him. ". Mick Dundee

 

[EngNate]

How does that saying go again? "Just because you aren't paranoid doesn't mean they aren't watching"

"Just because you aren't paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you" Country Joe MacDonald

 

[MurrayM]

"Just because you aren't paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you" Country Joe MacDonald

Can always rely on the TF brain trust

 

[MurrayM]

Comforting to know people are working on this one already...

In a related discovery published in Nature Microbiology last month, researchers at USC and in Korea found that aged ferrets with the virus exhibit symptoms similar to those seen in older humans, while young ferrets show no clinical symptoms. An animal model through which to study the virus, a crucial tool in vaccine or drug discovery, has been elusive until now.

“The ticks are already in the United States. If they start spreading the virus, it will be a major problem,” said Jae Jung, the study’s senior author and chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “I started studying this virus five years ago because once it appeared in China, I knew it would eventually appear in the United States.”

...because...

It can transmit severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), an illness that causes nausea, diarrhea and muscle pain. The illness is often lethal, killing up to 30 percent of hospitalized patients. The virus depletes blood platelets as it replicates, which prevents clotting and leads to hemorrhage similar to Ebola virus infection.

https://www.technologynetworks.com/...ew-tick-borne-illness-in-north-america-313619

 

[BruceK]

"Even paranoid people can be followed".
The Hendra Virus claim to fame is killing 7 of 10 humans it infects while making the other 3 very sick. Veterinarians have been particularly affected from diagnosing/treating infected horses. It comes from batshit, would it was as boring. We get occasional outbreaks but it`s better recognized as experience of it accumulates.

 

[Simi 60]

I'll just stay out here on the boat with wife and cat in these isolated anchorages like we have done for the past 5 years.
Next major interaction with dirt people will be end of October when boat comes out and even then, interaction will be minimal.

 

[Always Late]

Wow! Some serious gloom and doom. You might get stuck by lightning or eaten by a shark also!

 

[MurrayM]

"Even paranoid people can be followed".
The Hendra Virus claim to fame is killing 7 of 10 humans it infects while making the other 3 very sick. Veterinarians have been particularly affected from diagnosing/treating infected horses. It comes from batshit, would it was as boring. We get occasional outbreaks but it`s better recognized as experience of it accumulates.

This link says 7 people have contracted it and 5 have died. No human to human transmission, but one to watch for sure.

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/controlguideline/Pages/hendra-case-summary.aspx

 

[MurrayM]

Wow! Some serious gloom and doom. You might get stuck by lightning or eaten by a shark also!

Not doom and gloom at all, just interested in how Nature works to strike balance.

We all know about oscillating populations with rabbits and lynxes, or epic population crashes of arctic lemmings...what makes us, as just another animal on the planet, any different when Nature works to balance complex systems?

As our numbers increase the odds of pandemics increase as well, especially when we push densely populated cities further into wild areas and bring live wild bush meat into wet markets with live farm animals.

In the 1860's 70% of central and north coast First Nations people here on BC's coast died from smallpox, so the *bone memory of what disease outbreaks can do might be a bit fresher where I live.

It's comforting to know people are engaged in this research and people like Katalin Kariko, despite all the setbacks and career hurdles placed in her way, are breaking new ground that may one day save our asses, again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katalin_Karikó

*Bone memory is a First Nations concept that tragic or impactful events carry through generations, even if the memory of the event is lost in future generations.

 

[HopCar]

Anybody read the book Earth Abides? It’s fiction about a post-pandemic world. I read it as a teenager and it has stuck with me all these years.