Epidemiology of SFTS in China

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is a novel emerging virus infection that was first found and reported in Peoples’ Republic of China in 2009 and 2011, respectively. SFTS was later reported in Japan and South Korea, suggesting that SFTS is endemic to East Asian countries. Among these countries, the most SFTS cases have been reported in China. Geographically, SFTS cases have been mainly reported in rural and mountainous areas of the Eastern, Central, and North-Eastern China. So far, the number of SFTS cases has increased and the geographical distribution has expanded in China. From epidemiological studies, it was suggested that various factors including occupation, habit, tick bites, animal contact, environment, meteorological factor, demographic data, clinical symptoms, or laboratory data were associated with SFTS infection or fatal outcome. In this article, epidemiology of SFTS in China is described in detail to assess distributions over time, place, and person.