PLoS ONE (Jan 2014)

Epidemiological and etiological characteristics of fever, thrombocytopenia and leukopenia syndrome in Henan Province, China, 2011-2012.

  • Xueyong Huang,
  • Yanhua Du,
  • Xiaoning Hu,
  • Hongxia Ma,
  • Haifeng Wang,
  • Aiguo You,
  • Kai Kang,
  • Haomin Chen,
  • Li Zhang,
  • Guohua Liu,
  • Bianli Xu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0091166
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 3
p. e91166

Abstract

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The Fever, Thrombocytopenia and Leukopenia Syndrome (FTLS) is caused by a bunyavirus known as the FTLS virus (FTLSV), which was recently discovered in China. We examined the epidemiological and etiological features of 637 laboratory-confirmed cases of FTLS with onset from January 2011 to December 2012 in Henan Province, China. The highest incidence of FTLS occurred between May and August: 76.5% of all laboratory-confirmed cases occurred during those four months. Of the laboratory-confirmed cases, 60.9% were in the 46-69 years old age groups; 96.1% (612/637) occurred in farmers; 98.1% (625/637) were reported from Xinyang Prefecture. During the same time period, 2047 cases were reported in China. The nucleotide and amino acid sequences of FTLSV strains identified during 2011-2012 in Henan Province were ≥ 96% identical. This findings provides insight for developing public-health interventions for the control and prevention of FTLS in epidemic area.