Woman, aged 50 died of a tick-borne disease caught from cat

A Japanese woman has died of a tick-borne disease caught from a cat, in what is thought to be the first mammal to human transmission.

Japan’s health ministry said the woman in her 50s had been helping a sick stray cat when she was bitten.

Ten days later, she died of a severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, which is carried by ticks.

With no tick bite detected, doctors assume the illness must have been contracted via the infected cat.

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome is a relatively new infectious disease emerging in China, Korea and Japan.