Georgia data help researchers monitor HRTV spread
HRTV was first identified in 2009 in Missouri in two people hospitalized with fever, muscle pain, diarrhea, and low white blood cell and platelet counts. Researchers traced the infections to lone star ticks, and they found antibodies to the virus in blood samples from deer and other wild mammals.
According to the CDC, U.S. cases of tick-borne diseases more than doubled between 2004 and 2016. As of January 2021, more than 50 human cases of HRTV disease had been reported in 11 Midwestern and Southeastern states: Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
Precautions, signs, symptoms, testing, and treatment
“The lone star tick is aggressive and will actively seek out a human host to bite,” Dr. Hill noted.
She recommends that health care providers advise patients to avoid tick habitat, wear protective clothing, apply repellants, know the signs and symptoms of tick-borne disease, and seek immediate medical care if they become ill.
Common symptoms of HRTV disease include fatigue, fever, nausea, diarrhea, and anorexia. Treatment is supportive. Many patients have been hospitalized, and some with comorbidities have died.
HRTV infection is rarely tested for, and the disease burden is unknown. With no commercial tests available in the United States, the CDC performs molecular and serologic testing for HRTV infection. The agency advises doctors to contact their state health department if they suspect a patient may have HRTV disease.
Further research is needed
Samantha M. Wisely, PhD, a professor of wildlife ecology and the director of the Cervidae Health Research Initiative at the University of Florida in Gainesville, was not surprised by the study finding.
“The more we look for heartland virus, the more places we find it,” Dr. Wisely told this news organization in an email.
“Little is known about which wildlife play a role in maintaining the virus on the landscape,” said Dr. Wisely, who was not involved in the study. “White-tailed deer have been shown to produce antibodies, meaning they have been exposed to the virus, but no one has actually found the virus in a wildlife species.”
The whole-genome sequencing of the virus was particularly important, Dr. Wisely explained. “Whole-genome data allow researchers to better understand viral evolution, pathogenicity, and viral dynamics across space and time – how it is evolving.”
The study was supported by a grant from the Emory University Research Council. The authors, Dr. Wisely, and Dr. Hill have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.