A Japanese woman died last year from tick-borne diseases after she was bitten by a cat, the Japanese Health Ministry said, which could be the first direct transmission of mammalian disease to humans in this way.
She was a Pentecostal lady, helping the cat, who seemed to be ill.
She died 10 days later from a severe fever with platelet deficiency caused by a tick-borne virus.
Doctors assume that the disease is transmitted directly through the cat, because they do not detect any tick bite in the patient's body.
"There have been no reports of human-to-human transmission to date and it has not confirmed the transmission of the virus by cat, but it is probably the first case of its kind," a health ministry official told AFP.
The virus, known as SFTS, is a relatively new infectious disease in China, Korea and Japan.
The death rate from the virus is said to be 30 percent, and it is particularly high in people over the age of 50.
According to Japanese media, the SFTS virus first appeared in the country in 2013.
According to the Japanese Ministry of Information, the woman's death last year is a rare case, but she advised people to be cautious when dealing with animals with poor physical condition.
Worldwide, tick bites are widely associated with the transmission of Lyme disease, which can cause severe illness or death, if left untreated.
Source:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40713172
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/07/25/national/woman-japan-bitten-stray-cat-last-year-worlds-first-die-tick-borne-disease-carried-mammal-ministry/