Joseph Fair, Charles Chiu and Nathan Wolfe with their colleagues at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) have discovered a completely new virus, which until date was even unknown to exist, as per a recent report.

Published in the science journal recently by the team, the report has revealed how they were able to discover the same. It has been found that their urge to find the virus had developed after the unnamed virus killed three people.

The virus, which is no different from the deadly Ebola, had initially caused a teenager residing in Mangala in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to fall ill all of a sudden in 2009. She realized bleeding from mucous membranes and blood vomits, which are symptoms of hemorrhagic fever.

Besides, a 13-year-old girl discovered a similar condition a week later. Later, a third case was found with same symptoms.

It has been told that sophisticated technologies were used along with similar techniques and it was found that the Bas-Congo virus (BASV) has the ability to cause fatal viral hemorrhagic fever, sometimes leading to outbreaks as well.

The journal says, “We’re proud to be part of a global consortium responsible for the discovery and identification of BASV”.