TOYOHASHI (Aichi Pref.): The Toyohashi city government said Friday a person who came from the Philippines has developed rabies.

The deadly disease was confirmed in Japan for the first time in 14 years.

According to the municipal government in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, the patient, whose sex, age and nationality were not disclosed, is believed to have contracted the rabies virus in the Southeast Asian country when bitten by a dog on the left ankle last September. Before coming to Japan for work in February, the person did not go to a doctor.

After starting to present rabies symptoms on May 11, such as pains in the ankle and other parts of the body, vomiting and hydrophobia, the resident of the city of Shizuoka, east of Aichi, was hospitalized in Toyohashi on Monday. The infection was confirmed on Friday in a genetic analysis by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases. The patient has been in a serious condition.

Humans contract the rabies virus from dogs and other animals, and usually it is not transmitted between humans.

No one has been infected with the virus in Japan since the 1950s. But in 2006, two men from Yokohama and Kyoto, respectively, developed rabies and died in the country after contracting the virus in the Philippines.

JIJI Press