This is how a woman died from a tick-borne disease without a tick bite

A woman in Japan died last year from a tick-borne disease — but she was never bitten by a tick. Instead, investigators believe the woman became infected with a disease called severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome through a bite from a stray cat, according to The Japan Times. (Essentially, the cat was bitten by an infected tick, got infected and then passed that virus on to the woman.) But what is severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, and is it odd for a tick-borne disease to cut ticks out of the equation? An Asian virus Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome is caused by a virus of the same name: severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus, or SFTSV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus is spread primarily through ticks. If you haven’t heard of SFTSV, it may be because no cases of the disease have been reported in the United States;...