Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said a woman in her 70s who died last year would be the first case of an infectious disease caused by the Oz virus in the country. It is the first confirmed human infection with the virus worldwide. Hard ticks are believed to transmit the virus.
The information comes from the Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
The ministry said a woman died of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscles, in Ibaraki Prefecture, north of Tokyo.
She had gone to the hospital with a fever and tiredness. At that time it was discovered that a tick had bitten the upper part of the leg. An autopsy revealed that she was infected with the Oz virus.
The government says this is the first case of Oz virus infection, whether fatal or not.
Authorities warn that contracting the virus does not necessarily mean death, as antibody tests on blood samples in Japan indicate the existence of people infected with it.
It’s still not known exactly how a person gets the virus, but bites from ticks that transmit the virus are a likely cause.
The Department of Health is asking people to wear longsleeved shirts and long pants when visiting lawns where ticks are likely to be found.
The virus was first detected in Japan in 2018 in a specific species of hard ticks. This species of tick is found in the Kanto region, which includes Tokyo, as well as the central and western regions of the country.