抄録
Recently, ticks, which live in Japan, have been reported to possess various types of rickettsial agents. Case reports on Japanese spotted fever casing by Rickettsia japonica, which was found by Mahara in 1984, are continuing to increase. Until now, R. japonica has isolated and/or detected from Haemaphysalis hystricis and other various ixodids. And recent year, a patient of Far Eastern spotted fever by R. heilongjiangensis was identified in Japan, also its vector H. concinna, and its natural cycle were confirmed. Moreover, spotted fever cases by R. helvetica and R. tamurae have been reported. Most of anthropod-borne infectious diseases have known to have specific correlation between species of vector and pathogen. However, rickettsial agents and ticks might have interesting diversity in their relationship. In this report, we summarized the relationship among spotted fever group Rickettsia, vector ticks and human cases.
