South Korea has reported the first confirmed case of a person infected with a tick-borne virus in the country following reports of deaths in China and Japan, the state-run disease control agency said Tuesday.
Out of five suspected cases, a 63-year-old woman was found to be infected with the virus transmitted by one species of tick, the Haemaphysalis longicornis, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
The infected patient died in Seoul in August last year and four others were found to not be infected with the virus, according to the agency.
Symptoms of the virus include high fever, vomiting, diarrhea, multiple organ failure and other blood-related problems.
The agency said that it is checking whether the recent death of an elderly man reported on the southernmost island of Jeju can be also confirmed as a case of the virus carried by the tick, which inhabits the entire country.
On May 16, the 73-year-old Jeju farmer suspected of being bitten by a tick died after days of suffering from high fever and diarrhea.
China and Japan have also recently reported similar cases of the virus, which is known to have a fatality rate as high as around 10 percent, less than some 30 percent of the corresponding rate with encephalitis virus.
In Japan, eight patients were found to be infected with the virus, with five of them having died.
The agency said it advised people to minimize exposures of their skins as much as possible when doing outside activities as the tick mostly lives in grass. (Yonhap News)
