BEIJING - Chinese scientists have discovered a previously unknown virus carried by ticks which led to at least 36 deaths in six provinces by last September, according to the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine published Thursday.

The virus SFTSV (severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome bunyavirus) was recently discovered by scientists at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

People with the virus can experience fever and multiple organ failure.

The presence of the virus was confirmed in 171 patients from six provinces in China. It resulted in at least 36 deaths by September 2010.

CDC Director Wang Yu said between late March and mid-July 2009, symptoms of the infectious disease in humans were reported in rural areas of central Hubei and Henan provinces, but the cause of the symptoms were unknown then.

Major clinical symptoms included fever, thrombocytopenia, gastrointestinal symptoms, and leukocytopenia, and there was "an unusually high initial case fatality rate of 30 percent," Wang said.

Li Dexin, director of the CDC's virus institute, said farmers living in mountainous areas were most prone to tick bites which were prevalent between May and July.

The virus institute had conducted test on more than 600 shares of patients' blood serum, which showed that the SFTSV was the killer.