Infection with an emerging nairovirus causes acute febrile illness

Yezo Virus (YEZV) is belongs to family Nairoviridae and genus Orthonairovirus. This genus consists of tick-born viruses that could sometime cause fatal febrile illnesses in human beings and animals.

Potential reservoirs, for this virus, include wild animals and ticks, potentially Ixodes ticks.

YEZV causes YEZV infection that is characterized by fever, malaise, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, elevated levels of liver enzymes, highly elevated level of serum ferritin, highly elevated level of creatine kinase, significant atypical lymphocytosis, and lower extremity pain. These features of the infection could also result in fatal febrile illness in humans.

Source:

Kodama, F., Yamaguchi, H., Park, E., Tatemoto, K., Sashika, M., Nakao, R., Terauchi, Y., Mizuma, K., Orba, Y., Kariwa, H., Hagiwara, K., Okazaki, K., Goto, A., Komagome, R., Miyoshi, M., Ito, T., Yamano, K., Yoshii, K., Funaki, C., Ishizuka, M., Shigeno, A., Itakura, Y., Bell-Sakyi, L., Edagawa, S., Nagasaka, A., Sakoda, Y., Sawa, H., Maeda, K., Saijo, M., & Matsuno, K. (2021). A novel nairovirus associated with acute febrile illness in Hokkaido, Japan. Nat Commun, 12(1), 5539. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25857-0