ALARM BELLS: ‘Vole fever’ that can trigger Ebola-like bleeding virus is ‘spreading in parts of Europe’

A POTENTIALLY lethal virus that has the ability to jump from rodents to humans and can trigger Ebola-like bleeding is spreading across northern Europe.

Researchers have discovered that rodents in Sweden are carrying a pathogen that can jump to humans and turn into haemorrhagic fever.

1: Bank voles carrying Puumala virus have infected two people in southern Sweden with an illness that can turn into haemorrhagic feverCredit: Alamy

Cases of the illness are being spotted hundreds of miles from where health officials typically see this virus, causing concern among scientists.

It all started when doctors in Sweden’s southern Scania County diagnosed a case of nephropathia epidemica, caused by Puumala virus carried by bank voles, in 2018.

Nephropathia epidemica is also referred to as ‘vole fever’ and is a rare illness that has the potential to cause haemorrhagic fever in people.

Haemorrhagic fevers are a group of diseases caused by different viruses that can be severe and life threatening – they include yellow fever, the Ebola virus and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.

Doctors were baffled to spot a case of vole fever so far south in the country, more than 500 km south from where the disease had previously been spotted.

Another case was spotted in 2020, also in the Scania County of Sweden.

In both cases, the patients hadn’t travelled and and were infected in their home area.

Their symptoms were typical of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) symptoms, including fever, general malaise, nosebleeds, and poor kidney function.

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