Rickettsia japonica Infections in Humans, Zhejiang Province, China, 2015

We investigated 16 Japanese spotted fever cases that occurred in southeastern China during September-October 2015.Patients had fever, rash, eschar, and lymphadenopathy.We confirmed 9 diagnoses and obtained 2 isolates with high identity to Rickettsia japonica strain YH.R. japonica infection should be considered for febrile patients in China.R ickettsia japonica is a member of the spotted fever group rickettsiae (SFGR) that causes tickborne Japanese spotted fever (JSF).First reported in Japan's Tokushima Prefecture in 1984 (1,2), JSF has been recognized in multiple countries of Asia, including Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand (3-5).In China, 4 species of SFGR have been reported to cause human infection: R. heilongjiangensis, R. sibirica subspecies sibirica BJ-90, Candidatus R. tarasevichiae, and R. raoultii (6).In this report, we investigated the causative agent of 16 JSF cases that occurred in southeastern China in late 2015. Rickettsia japonica Infections in Humans,Zhejiang Province, China,