More than 200 cases of a tick-borne illness known as severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome have been reported so far this year, bringing the number to its highest point since 2020.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Sunday, the 2025 total stands at 220 cases nationwide, as compared with 170 cases for all of last year and 243 cases in 2020.

The illness is transmitted primarily through tick bites, but secondary infections can occur in medical settings in rare cases. 

Symptoms typically appear within two weeks of a tick bite and include high fever, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. 

In severe cases, the condition can lower platelet and white blood cell counts, potentially resulting in death.

South Korea officially designated the syndrome a communicable disease in 2013, and since then the country has recorded a total of two-thousand-65 cases and 381 deaths, for a fatality rate of 18-point-five percent.