Tick bite caused by male Amblyomma testudinarium in a Korean woman = Tick bite caused by male Amblyomma testudinarium in a Korean woman

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Ticks are blood-sucking arthropods that parasitize various species of vertebrates. In Korea, approximately 40 human cases have been reported since 1982. The most common species causing tick bites in Korea are Ixodes nipponensis. Amblyomma testudinarium is a tropical tick and found mainly in the Indian Peninsula, South East Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan. A. testudinarium accounts for 10% of all tick bite cases in Japan. In Korea, however, only few reports of the tick bite by A. testudinarium have been reported. A 53-year-old woman presented with asymptomatic pedunculated mass on her buttock. She was attacked by the tick while climbing the Jungbyung mountain located in Changwon City, the southern coastal area of the Korean Peninsula. It was identified as male A. testudinarium according to its morphological characteristics. Histological examination showed dense inflammatory infiltration of neutrophils and eosinophils, and dilated vessels on the dermis beneath the biting site of the tick. To the best of our knowledge, our patient is the second case of tick bite from this species and the first tick bite from the male tick recorded in Korea. Here, we report a case of tick bite by male A. testudinarium in a woman.