Serologic Evidence of Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus and Related Viruses in Pakistan
Ali Zohaib, Jingyuan Zhang, Muhammad Saqib, Muhammad Ammar Athar, Muhammad Hammad Hussain, Jing Chen, Awais-ur-Rahman Sial, Muhammad Tayyab, Murrafa Batool, Saeed Khan, Yun Luo, Cecilia Waruhiu, Zeeshan Taj, Zulfiqar Hayder, Riaz Ahmed, Abu Bakr Siddique, Xing‐Lou Yang, Muhammad Asif Qureshi, Ikram Uddin Ujjan, Amanullah Lail, Iahtasham Khan, Sajjad-Ur-Rahman, Tao Zhang, Fei Deng, Zhengli Shi, Shū Shěn
Abstract
S evere fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging tickborne disease caused by the SFTS virus (SFTSV; genus Banyangvirus, family Phenuiviridae, order Bunyavirales). The disease is prevalent in East Asia countries. It was first detected in China in 2009 and later in Japan and South Korea (1) and is suspected to be widely spread across other parts of the world (2). The recent identification of SFTSV in Xinjiang, China (3), expanded our awareness of epidemic areas of SFTS and suggested the possibility of SFTSV spreading to bordering countries like Pakistan. However, the presence of SFTSV in Pakistan has been unclear. We investigated the seroprevalence of SFTSV in humans in Pakistan.