China on high alert after unknown virus kills 7 people and 60 others infected

China has reported a new infectious disease caused by a tick-borne virus which has killed 7 people leaving 60 others infected. A woman from Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu, who suffered from the virus showed onset of symptoms such as fever, coughing. Doctors found a decline of leukocyte, blood platelet inside of her body.After a month of treatment, she was discharged from the hospital. More than 37 people in East China’s Jiangsu Province contracted with the SFTS Virus in the first half of the year. Later, 23 people were found to have been infected in East China’s Anhui province, state-run Global Times quoted media reports.

The virus which is called SFTS  belongs to the Bunyavirus category and virologist believe that the infection may have been passed on to humans by ticks and that the virus can be transmitted between humans. Sheng Jifang, a doctor from the first affiliated hospital under Zhejiang University, said that the possibility of human-to-human transmission could not be excluded; patients can pass the virus to others via blood or mucus. Doctors warned that tick bite is the major transmission route, as long as people remain cautious, there's no need to over panic over such virus. Globally China is facing tremendous pressure from other countries over the irresponsible handling of the COVID -19 pandemic.