Full Length Research Paper

Seroprevalence of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) in risk groups in Tokat Province of Turkey

Saban Tekin^1*, Sener Barut², Ahmet Bursali¹, Gul Aydogan¹, Onem Yuce¹, Fatma Demir³ and Beytullah Yildirim⁴

¹Department of Biology, Gaziosmanpaşa University, Faculty of Art and Sciences, Tokat, Turkey.

²Department of Infectious Diseases, Gaziosmanpaşa University, School of Medicine Tokat, Turkey.

³Intensive Care Unit, C. Aykan State Hospital, Tokat, Turkey.

⁴Department of General Medicine, Gaziosmanpasa University, School of Medicine Tokat, Turkey.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: sabant@yahoo.com. Fax: +90356-2521616.

Accepted 17 December, 2009

   Abstract

Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is a fatal viral haemorrhagic fever affecting humans. Serious CCHF outbreaks with high mortality have been reported from Asia, Africa and Europe. Endemic CCHF outbreaks have been seen in Turkey between 2002 and 2009, with about 5% mortality rate. People working with animals, people having tick bites, health workers and relatives of CCHF patients may be infected by CCHF virus and therefore they have been considered as CCHF risk groups. In the present study, CCHF prevalence of a control group, people working with animals (PA), people having tick bites (PT), health workers (HW) and relatives of CCHF patients (RP) from Tokat province in Turkey was investigated. A total of 715 people in control and risk groups were tested for the presence of the anti-CCHF IgG in their sera by using anti-CCHF IgG ELISA and compared. Results showed that people working with animals and relatives of CCHF patients had significantly higher CCHF prevalence (p < 0.001) than other groups. The higher seroprevalence of CCHF in people working with animals and relatives of patients indicate that they might be infected with CCHFV in a way that clinical symptoms of disease did not occur or not apparent in a hyper endemic region.

Key words: CCHF, ELISA, human, ticks, Tokat, seroprevalence.