On Oct. 11, 2024, researchers in China published a study that provided details about a new wetland virus. The virus was first identified in 2019, after a patient, bitten by a tick while visiting a wetland park in Inner Mongolia, was admitted to hospital with symptoms of fever, headache and vomiting that progressed to multiple organ dysfunction.

The researchers sequenced the genetic material extracted from a blood sample to find the virus responsible for the disease. They discovered a previously unknown virus – a close relative of other tick-transmitted viruses, including the dangerous Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever virus, which has a 30% mortality rate. Wetland virus is a member of the orthonairovirus genus in the Nairoviridae family. The study findings were published in The New England Journal of Medicine.