Health chiefs keeping tabs on FOUR novel pathogens – including one from same family as one of world’s deadliest diseases
- Cases have only been recorded among people in Japan, Russia and China
- They were identified by UKHSA as diseases that could make their way to Britain
Four novel pathogens — including one from the same family as one of the world’s deadliest — are now being tracked by health chiefs.
None of the four diseases have been detected in Britain yet.
Cases have only been recorded among people in Japan, Russia and China.
One of the pathogens, a tick-borne virus called Oz, killed a woman in her 70s.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) identified them as part of the agency’s work in tracking diseases that could make their way to Britain.
Four novel pathogens — including one from the same family as one of the world’s deadliest — are being tracked by health chiefs. None of the diseases have been detected in Britain yet
Oz is a type of thogotovirus, which cause fevers and brain swelling among those it infects. It falls into the orthomyxoviridae family of viruses.
Oz virus was first detected among ticks in Japan in 2018.
The nation’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases confirmed in June that the first human case had been spotted last year summer.
Local media reported how an unidentified woman in her 70s developed a fever and fatigue and was diagnosed with pneumonia.
When the patient was hospitalised, a tick was found stuck on her upper thigh and she tested positive for the virus. She died of inflammation of the heart muscle three weeks later, which Japanese health chiefs put down to Oz virus.
Studies suggest the virus is widely distributed among people and animals in western and eastern Japan. It has been spotted in monkeys, boars and deer, according to local reports.
There have been no reports of cases outside the country, according to the UKHSA, which is keeping a close eye on the virus.
It also raised the alarm over the Haseki tick virus (HSTV), spotted among ixodid ticks and patients in Russia.
Further tests revealed that the virus is closely related to flavi-like viruses, which are similar to those that cause the diseases yellow fever, dengue and zika.
A hospitalised patient in Vladivostok, south east Russia, tested positive for the virus but no other human cases have been reported.
Research suggests it is spreading among ticks in at least two regions of the country but further studies are needed to determine whether those in other nations are affected, the UKHSA said.
Coxiella burnetii is another emerging pathogen being monitored by the agency.
The bug has been spotted in marine mammal species.
The UKHSA said detections among fur seals in Australia in June revealed mutations that could cause the animals’ that trigger miscarriages and allow the infection to spread to humans.
Another tickborne virus under scrutiny is Yezo virus, which was discovered in Japan in 2021.
It is an orthonairovirus, part of the same family as Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever — a disease caused by a tickborne virus that kills up to half of those it infects and triggers uncontrollable bleeding.
It was also spotted in a patient who was hospitalised with the virus in north-eastern China. Symptoms of an infection include a fever, the UKHSA said.
Yezo virus was also detected among some patients in Japan, though their illness was milder, it said.
The UKHSA told MailOnline: ‘As part of our established global surveillance of emerging infections, we regularly monitor for reports of novel pathogens or new strains associated with known pathogens in other countries.
‘There have been no detections of these infections in the UK.’
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