Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) was first reported by Chinese researchers in 2011 as the world's 1st tick-borne febrile infection caused by the SFTS virus (1). In Japan in 2013 in Yamaguchi Prefecture the 1st SFTS patient to develop was reported (2). In recent years, there have been reports of cases of suspected direct infection from pet animals such as dogs and cats (3). The epidemic in Japan is confined to western Japan west of Shizuoka prefecture, and cases are reported every year, but SFTS cases in the Kanto region as an estimated infection area have not been reported so far. This time, we conducted a retrospective survey of so-called unknown fever patients who were suspected of having tick-borne rickettsia infection but could not be diagnosed and reported that the first case of SFTS virus infection was confirmed in Chiba prefecture.
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