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In 2011, a tickborne phlebovirus — so-called severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) — was described as a cause of human disease in China. Now, illness closely resembling that caused by SFTSV has been reported in two men in northwestern Missouri.
The two patients had suffered tick bites 5 to 7 days before the onset of a severe febrile illness characterized by fatigue, diarrhea, thrombocytopenia, and leukopenia. Ehrlichiosis was the presumptive diagnosis in each case, but results from laboratory tests (serologic analysis, polymerase chain reaction assay, cell culture) were all negative. The men were hospitalized for 10 and 12 days.
Viral particles were isolated from the patients' leukocytes in cell culture. Thin-section elect…