Scientists Find New Virus in Tick Invading US

Scientists in China have identified a new tick-borne virus that causes a flu-like illness — and the tick that carries it is already established across more than two dozen US states.

The researchers, led by the State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity in Beijing, named it the Asian longhorned tick nairovirus, or ALTNV. Their findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and reported by CIDRAP, the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

The Asian longhorned tick was first discovered in the United States in 2017 and has since spread to more than two dozen states, according to The Hill and Nexstar stations covering the study.

Every patient and every tick in the study was in China. The researchers did not report any US cases.

The Numbers

Of 3,163 patients tested, 10.4% were positive for ALTNV by RNA or IgM antibody detection. Among patients who tested negative for Dabie bandavirus — the tick-borne hemorrhagic fever the team was originally chasing — 15.1% were positive for ALTNV.

ALTNV RNA turned up in 1.3% of 47,428 ticks sampled across 15 Chinese provinces, with the highest rate, 1.8%, in Haemaphysalis longicornis — the Asian longhorned tick.