A person-to-person transmission cluster of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome characterized by mixed viral infections with familial and nosocomial clustering

Yanping Wen; Yezhen Fang; Feifei Cao; Guozhong Zhang; Shi Cheng; Yue Yu; Renjie Huang; Zhimin Ni; Jun Li

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24502

A person-to-person transmission cluster of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome characterized by mixed viral infections with familial and nosocomial clustering

Heliyon. 2024 Jan 13;10(2):e24502. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24502. eCollection 2024 Jan 30.

Authors

Yanping Wen¹, Yezhen Fang², Feifei Cao¹, Guozhong Zhang¹, Shi Cheng¹, Yue Yu¹, Renjie Huang¹, Zhimin Ni², Jun Li¹

Affiliations

¹ Hangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Zhejiang, China.
² Shangcheng District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Zhejiang, China.

Abstract

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging tick-borne infectious disease with sporadic occurrence and high mortality. Herein, we report an example of the in-hospital transmission of SFTS virus (SFTSV) infections with familial and nosocomial clustering in Zhejiang Province, eastern China, from March to April 2023. The epidemiological investigation and genomic analysis revealed that at least eight suspected cases of SFTS occurred in this cluster, including one death and one asymptomatic case. Our report reemphasizes the risk of familial and nosocomial SFTSV infections in healthcare settings and the urgent need for the long-term systematic surveillance of SFTSV evolution in humans and animals in the eastern coastal regions of China.

Keywords: Familial clustering; Genomic characterization; Nosocomial infection; Person-to-person transmission; Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus.

Publication types

Case Reports