Source: http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/a...enewsid=104898
Tick panic in Istanbul
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
ISTANBUL ? TDN with wire dispatches
More than a hundred people were rushed to hospitals in Istanbul after finding ticks on their skin over the weekend.
In the last month, seven have died around the country from Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, which passes through tick bites.
Over a hundred adults and around 60 children came to the Haseki Training and Research Hospital where the ticks were removed.
The patients were told to return if they suffered from bleeding, high fever, muscle pain and vomiting.
The Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever mainly strikes farm and slaughterhouse workers in the countryside in the central Anatolia and Black Sea regions.
Local media said ticks carrying the virus are multiplying faster than usual due to global warming and high temperatures.
The disease normally occurs through bites of infected ticks or from direct contact with infected blood and tissue from livestock. Human to human transmission, through exposure to contaminated blood, is more rare.
There is no vaccine against the disease. A body rash and bleeding from the bowels and gums, often accompanied by hepatitis and pulmonary failure, follow in severe cases.
The mortality rate can reach 30 percent from the disease, which was first identified in Crimea in 1944 and later appeared in Congo.
Tick panic in Istanbul
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
ISTANBUL ? TDN with wire dispatches
More than a hundred people were rushed to hospitals in Istanbul after finding ticks on their skin over the weekend.
In the last month, seven have died around the country from Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, which passes through tick bites.
Over a hundred adults and around 60 children came to the Haseki Training and Research Hospital where the ticks were removed.
The patients were told to return if they suffered from bleeding, high fever, muscle pain and vomiting.
The Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever mainly strikes farm and slaughterhouse workers in the countryside in the central Anatolia and Black Sea regions.
Local media said ticks carrying the virus are multiplying faster than usual due to global warming and high temperatures.
The disease normally occurs through bites of infected ticks or from direct contact with infected blood and tissue from livestock. Human to human transmission, through exposure to contaminated blood, is more rare.
There is no vaccine against the disease. A body rash and bleeding from the bowels and gums, often accompanied by hepatitis and pulmonary failure, follow in severe cases.
The mortality rate can reach 30 percent from the disease, which was first identified in Crimea in 1944 and later appeared in Congo.
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