Korea, 2012

We report a retrospectively identified fatal case of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) in South Korea from 2012. SFTS virus was isolated from the stored blood of the patient. Phylogenetic analysis revealed this isolate was closely related to SFTS virus strains from China and Japan. Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) causes signs and symptoms including high fever, vom-iting, diarrhea, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, and multiple organ failure and has a 6%–30 % case-fatality rate (1–4). Caused by a novel bunyavirus, SFTS virus (SFTSV), SFTS was initially reported in China in 2011 (1). SFTSV has been detected in Haemaphysalis longicornis ticks, which have been implicated as a vector of the virus (1). H. longicornis ticks widely inhabit the Korean Peninsula (5,6), and the Ko-rea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that SFTSV was detected in samples from H. longicornis ticks collected during 2011–2012 in South Korea (7). Serocon-version and viremia of SFTSV have been demonstrated in domesticated animals such as goats, sheep, cattle, pigs, and dogs; these animals have been implicated as intermediate hosts in SFTSV-endemic areas (8,9). SFTSV was also de