2014 Spring-Summer “Tick” Season Has Started
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a viral infection transmitted by ticks of the genus Hyalomma. The mortality rate is 30%, which means it’s pretty lethal and dangerous.
Throughout the whole world, It was encountered for the first time in Crimea (1944). In Turkey, it was seen for the first time in 2002.
The tick, which is as big as a sesame seed, gets firmly attached to the “bare skin” with its claws to change its location. It sucks blood in to feed itself. The virus completes its life-cycle inside the tick and reincarnates in the human body. For this reason, the first measure that needs to be taken is to avoid walking barefoot on meadows, wild pastures and green plains (picnic and camping areas) where ticks are common (moist, wet, warm places), and not laying down on the ground in such with bare skin contacting the ground. That means, these picnic areas are no longer the places where you can sit back and lay down as you like.
A much more important issue compared to the tick bite (if tick is removed with appropriate techniques the risk of the disease is very low) is the handling of the thick. It is possible to squeeze the thick while trying to remove it forcibly from the skin. In such a case, the viruses could spread to other people. We are aware of the cases where the paramedics working in the emergency rooms died a s a result of infection caught while carelessly attempting to remove the thick without any glove. Most of the ticks are recognized much later as they could be perceived “a dark mole” in the part of the body they attach themselves (biting and blood sucking of the tick cannot be even felt.) Therefore, it is very important to control the whole body after an outdoor activity.
Symptoms of infection are weakness, fever, headache, malaise, muscle pain, photosensitivity, agitation sometimes vomiting, and they start between 1st and 3rd days, continuing with the spread of common bleeding foci in the body. The severe clinical picture, which results in recovery or death, takes place at the 2nd week. The cause of death is internal organ failure and unstoppable bleeding. Once the infection is passed, the person becomes immune to the disease. There is no vaccination for the infection (for the time being).
The following could be cited among the measures that can be taken for protection: do not get into direct contact with grasses, bushes and other greenery with bare feet or body with in the countryside where the ticks could be seen especially during their active season (April-October) while hunting, doing outdoor sports, picnic, camping, carrying out military-land training and research work in the countryside, or use insect repellants and insecticides to protect your skin. If it is not possible to wear long boots, you should not squeeze the legs of your trousers into your socks so that no open door is left for the ticks, and avoid getting infected meat from the places where the source of the meat cannot be traced.
Professionals of occupations which face additional risks: slaughterhouse employees, butchers, veterinarians and those people who feed domestic animals, such as cat dogs travelling in the nature freely and those taking care of birds feeding on the ground like pigeons, all should be extremely careful. You should not detach the tick forcibly, or crash it . You should not spray liquids such as detergent, cologne, kerosene, alcohol or pepper gas (please don’t personalize) that may cause vomiting.
For treatment, in addition to the use of ribavirin (antiviral), whose effectiveness has not been precisely proved yet, serums from immune persons and other supportive approaches are preferred. Cases are mostly seen in Central Anatolia and Central Black Sea Region, namely in Kelkit Valley, Tokat, Gumushane, Sivas, Amasya, Corum, Yozgat, Kastamonu and Cankiri provinces.
The efforts to fight with ticks include distribution of Beç chickens, which are enemies of ticks, to the villagers in epidemic regions, castration project applied under the leadership of Turkish Atomic Energy Authority. In addition to these efforts, as you already know, “attention and right information”, are the most effective and permanent methods of treatment for such infections and all kinds of diseases for centuries.
