The increasing burden of tick-borne orthonairovirus infections, such as Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, is becoming a global concern for public health. In the present study, we identify a novel orthonairovirus, designated Yezo virus (YEZV), from two patients showing acute febrile illness with thrombocytopenia and leukopenia after tick bite in Hokkaido, Japan, in 2019 and 2020, respectively. YEZV is phylogenetically grouped with Sulina virus detected in Ixodes ricinus ticks in Romania. YEZV infection has been confirmed in seven patients from 2014–2020, four of whom were co-infected with Borrelia spp. Antibodies to YEZV are found in wild deer and raccoons, and YEZV RNAs have been detected in ticks from Hokkaido. In this work, we demonstrate that YEZV is highly likely to be the causative pathogen of febrile illness, representing the first report of an endemic infection associated with an orthonairovirus potentially transmitted by ticks in Japan.

The ongoing spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a worldwide crisis. Hokkaido Prefecture in Japan promptly declared a state of emergency following the rapid increase of COVID-19 cases, and the policy became an example to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. We herein report 15 cases of COVID-19 including 3 cases requiring mechanical ventilation. Based on review of our cases, among patients over 50 years of age with underlying diseases such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus, and those who required oxygen administration tended to deteriorate. These cases highlight the importance of understanding the background and clinical course of severe cases to predict prognosis.

Purpose Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) is a common infection in patients with solid tumors undergoing chemotherapy. In medical oncology, this dilemma often arises between infection control and cancer treatment. We aimed to explore whether early resumption of chemotherapy yielded unfavorable outcomes in oncologic patients with SAB. Methods We retrospectively reviewed patients who received antineoplastic chemotherapy within 90 days of SAB onset. We divided patients who resumed chemotherapy into early and late resumption groups and investigated whether chemotherapy after SAB was associated with treatment failure. Treatment failure included recurrence or relapse, 90-day all-cause mortality after initiation of antibiotics toward susceptible microorganisms, and 30-day all-cause mortality after resumption of chemotherapy. Results Among the 78 eligible patients, catheter-related bloodstream infection was the most common (51 patients, 65.4%). Thirty-six patients (46.2%) resumed chemotherapy under the supervision of infectious disease specialists. The median interval from the date of negative blood culture to the date of chemotherapy resumption was 17.5 days (0–69). Two patients in the early resumption group (\(<\)17.5 days, 11.1%) and one in the late resumption group (\(\ge\) 17.5 days, 5.6%) died within 90 days after the initiation of antibiotics toward susceptible microorganisms. One patient (5.6%) in the early resumption group experienced SAB recurrence. None of the patients experienced SAB relapse or died within 30 days of resuming chemotherapy. Conclusion Early resumption of chemotherapy may not be directly associated with unfavorable outcomes in SAB in patients with solid tumors under appropriate infection management.