A bibliographical study of human cases of hard tick (Acarina: Ixodidae) bites received abroad and found in Japan.
This paper reviewed significant literature on human cases of hard tick bites received abroad and found in Japan between 1986 and 2005. A total of 31 patients (19 males and 12 females) have been reported in the literature. The pertinent data on each case are summarized in the table. The patients ranged in age from 7 to 75 years old, with most of them being in the fifties to seventies. The localities where the patients tick bites occurred were distributed throughout the world (about 15 countries), although relatively high incidences were found in Australia (eight cases) and USA (six cases). Nine species in three genera excluding ten unknown species and two unidentified species were removed from 31 patients, including Ixodes holocyclus, I. persulcatus, I. ricinus, Amblyomma americanum, A. hebraeum, A. testudinarium, A. tholloni, Dermacentor andersoni and D. variavilis, in which infestation was with the genus Ixodes (12 cases) and genus Dermacentor (9 cases) more frequent than with Amblyomma (8 cases). The highest incidences of infestation sites on the 31 patients were the skin surface of the head and neck regions (16 cases), the trunk (9 cases), the extremities (5 cases), and unknown (1 case). The tick bites in the majority of the cases were principally acquired in mountainous areas (6 cases), in game reserves and on grassy plains (5 cases each).
