[2] SFTS is an emerging infectious disease that was first described in northeast and central China 2009 and now has also been discovered in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan in 2015.

[citation needed] Among bunyaviruses, it appears to be more closely related to the Uukuniemi virus serogroup than to the Sandfly fever group.

[7] It can infect many mammalian hosts, including cats, mice, hedgehogs, weasels, brushtail possums and yaks.

SFTSV has been detected from the ixodid tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis, Ixodes nipponensis, Amblyomma testudinarium[8] and Rhipicephalus microplus.

SFTS occurs in rural areas, from March to November, and a majority of cases are found from April to July.