Japan woman dies of tick disease after bitten by sick cat
A Japanese woman has died from a tick-borne virus after being bitten by a stray cat in what is possibly the world's first animal-to-human transmission of the disease.
A Japanese woman has died from a tick-borne virus after being bitten by a stray cat in what is possibly the world's first animal-to-human transmission of the disease.
The woman in her 50s died some 10 days after being bitten by the cat last year after she took the animal to a veterinary hospital.
Authorities have since confirmed that she developed SFTS, a disease transmitted by bites from a certain group of virus- carrying ticks.
Human-to-human infections of the tick virus through blood contact have been reported, but ministry officials believe the Japanese woman's death could be the first case of a human dying from the bite of an infected animal.
"No reports on animal-to-human transmission cases have been made so far," a health ministry official told
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)