By MIREI JINGUJI/ Staff Writer
June 24, 2023 at 17:06 JST
An electron microscope photo of an Oz virus particle (Provided by National Institute of Infectious Diseases)
Japan’s health ministry on June 23 announced the world’s first infection and fatality from the tick-borne Oz virus.
It said a woman in her 70s living in Ibaraki Prefecture just outside Tokyo died of viral myocarditis.
Officials noted that the woman complained early last summer of lethargy, loss of appetite, vomiting, pain in her joints and a fever.
Hospital staff found a tick high on the woman’s right thigh that had been sucking blood. She died on the 26th day of hospitalization.
An autopsy concluded she died from an infection caused by the Oz virus. As hospital staff had discarded the tick, they were unable to pinpoint the course of the infection.
The Oz virus was separated from a tick in Ehime Prefecture in 2018, but no confirmation of human infection had been made until now.
There are several tick-borne infectious diseases, such as “severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome” (SFTS), which has resulted in 96 fatalities in Japan between 2013 and January.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
