A 70-year-old woman died on June 24 in Japan after contracting the Oz virus, caused by tick bites. She is the first fatality in the world from this condition, government sources in that country reported.
According to the Europa Press agency , "the woman had already gone to the Ibaraki medical center (one of the forty-seven prefectures into which Japan is divided) last summer, after experiencing symptoms such as fever, fatigue and vomiting. There she was treated They diagnosed pneumonia, gave him treatment, asking him to recover at home.
"After her condition worsened, she was hospitalized and a swollen tick was found on the upper part of her right thigh," detailed Kiodo News, a Tokyo-based television network, cited by Télam.
The patient had developed myocarditis. The Oz virus was present in heart muscle cells.
"There is currently no vaccine against this virus, which was only found in Japan. Although being infected is not necessarily fatal, more studies should be carried out on its symptoms and dangers," explained the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo.
For its part, Japan’s Ministry of Health officially announced "the first case in the world in which a human being developed symptoms as a result of infection with the Oz virus." And he clarified that no other cases of people who had died from the virus have been confirmed so far.
The Oz virus was discovered in 2018. It is believed to be transmitted through the bite of the tick, a very common species throughout Japan. According to the United States National Library of Medicine, this virus is a variety of the Thogotovirus genus . That is, it replicates in tick cells and is transmitted by these mites. Furthermore, phylogenetic analyzes revealed that the Oz virus is also most closely related to the Dhori, Batken, and Bourbon viruses.
The Madrid iO Foundation suspects that this virus is transmitted by the tick Amblyomma testudinarium – the main species of tick that infests humans in the southern and western parts of Japan. Despite the data, more research is needed to determine if this virus is a zoonotic pathogen.
Ticks are mainly parasites that feed on the blood of mammals, and are frequently found in tall grasses. They are vectors of multiple diseases, many of their larvae attack livestock and it is difficult to detect their presence, it is only noticed when thousands have already attached themselves to the animal, making their eradication difficult.
