title: Person-to-person transmission of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus.
abstract: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease caused by a newly discovered bunyavirus, SFTS virus (SFTSV), and causes high fatality (12% on average and as high as 30%). The objective of this study was to determine whether SFTSV could be transmitted from person to person. We analyzed sera of 13 patients from two clusters of unknown infectious diseases that occurred between September and November of 2006 in Anhui Province of China for SFTSV antibody by indirect immunofluorescence assay and for SFTSV RNA by RT-PCR. We found that all patients (n=14) had typical clinical symptoms of SFTS including fever, thrombocytopenia, and leukopenia and all secondary patients in both clusters got sick at 6-13 days after contacting or exposing to blood of index patients. We demonstrated that all patients in cluster 1 including the index patient and nine secondary patients and all three secondary patients in cluster 2 had seroconversion or fourfold increases in antibody titer to SFTSV and/or by RT-PCR amplification of SFTSV RNA from the acute serum. The index patient in cluster 2 was not analyzed because of lack of serum. No person who contacted the index patient during the same period, but were not exposed to the index patient blood, had got illness. We concluded that SFTSV can be transmitted from person to person through contacting patient's blood.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Blvd., Galveston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Wanfu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Jiabin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yubi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mei
authors.forename: David H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xue-Jie
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D002044:Bunyaviridae Infections / Q000097:blood* / Q000209:etiology / Q000635:transmission*; D002681:China; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D030561:Databases, Nucleic Acid; D005260:Female; D019084:Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016856:Phlebovirus / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral