Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome: the disease, caused by the novel phlebovirus

Abstract

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease caused by a new virus (SFTS virus) reported to be endemic to central and northeastern parts of China. SFTS virus, which is classified into the genus Phlebovirus (the Bunyaviridae family), is suspected to be a tick-borne virus owing to evidence in two species of ticks: Haemaphysalis longicornis and Rhipicephalus microplus. SFTS virus is detected among many species of domestic animals in China. The clinical symptoms of SFTS include fever, thrombocytopenia, leucocytopenia, gastrointestinal symptoms, neural symptoms, bleeding tendency. The fatality rate of SFTS is 6-30%. Person-to-person transmission of SFTS virus is possible through blood contact. Clinical and epidemiological studies of SFTS, the cases of SFTS outside China, person-to-person transmission of SFTS virus, evolutionary and molecular analysis of the emergent SFTS virus, and risk assessment of human infection with a novel phlebovirus are considered in this review.

Keywords

• severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome
• severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus
• clinical and epidemiological study
• ticks
• domestic animals
• risk factors transmission of sfts infection