Published: 2011-11-01 Share: Professor Wang Hua, director of the Jiangsu Center for Disease Control and Prevention, led by Dr. Bao Changjun, deputy director of the Center’s Institute of Acute Infectious Disease Control, and others, to study a case of familial aggregation of bunyavirus infection transmitted by human-to-human transmission through a variety of methods, including laboratory testing. The research paper was published online Oct. 25 in the Journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases (Clin Infect Dis). According to Yuerong Li of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Zhangqiu People’s Hospital, an 80-year-old woman died of hyperthermia, leukopenia and thrombocytopenia on April 27, 2007. At that time, the investigation showed that the death had no history of going out before the onset of the disease, no history of contact with sick or dead birds, no history of contact with similar cases. The area where the death occurred was a typical hilly area, and the deceased was usually in good health, but often went to the wild hillside to pick tea leaves. In December 2009, a new bunyavirus, named fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome bunyavirus, was identified as the causative agent of these symptoms in China. The investigators re-tested blood samples from members of this family and analyzed epidemiological data and clinical data from the first and secondary cases. Blood samples from the secondary cases were tested by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), viral culture, gene sequencing, micro-neutralization assay (MNA), and indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA). None of the six patients had contact with suspected animals or carriers, but all of them had close contact with the first case. In addition, another case of human-to-human transmission of Bunyavirus was identified at the Institute of Acute Infectious Disease Control and Prevention, Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The initial case was a 59-year-old male with an onset date of October 2010, and the caregiver who was in close contact with the patient subsequently developed a fever with thrombocytopenia. The same tests were performed and the fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome bunyavirus was successfully isolated and the gene sequencing was identical. The results were published in the September issue of the New England Journal of Medicine this year. Analysis by Dr. Changjun Bao, the deputy chief physician involved in the study, pointed out that the successful detection of fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome Bunyavirus points to the direction for the treatment of the disease, which is of great benefit in reducing the morbidity and mortality of the disease; at the same time, the report of human-to-human transmission confirms a new mode of transmission of the disease, which is of great significance for the prevention of the disease, blocking the transmission route and strengthening the surveillance of new infectious diseases. Excerpted from The Clove