Dusseldorf  – A potentially fatal tick-borne disease is spreading in Turkey, the Dusseldorf-based Travel Medicine Centre (CRM) has warned. Called Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), it has symptoms similar to influenza but can cause haemorrhaging.

There is no CCHF vaccine, so travellers to Turkey should take precautions against ticks, the CRM said. Wide swathes of the country are affected.

According to the CRM, 680 people contracted CCHF in Turkey last year, of whom 55 died. Some cases occurred in the region around the popular Mediterranean resort of Antalya. The first two fatalities this year were in the Black Sea city of Samsun.

The CRM noted that CCHF was a viral infection transmitted to humans mainly by ticks but sometimes by contact with infected persons. It said the only effective protection against the disease was to avoid contact with ticks.

“An FSME vaccination is useless,” Tomas Jelinek, the CRM’s scientific director, told the German Press Agency dpa. FSME-IMMUN is a vaccine against tick-borne encephalitis.

Although the ticks in Turkey differ from those in Central Europe, protective measures against them are the same. Jelinek recommends buying a tick repellent in a pharmacy. “Repellents specifically aimed at ticks are best,” he said. “Mosquito repellents are useless, and general insect repellents are usually not very effective.”

It is essential that scent-based tick repellents be applied to the right areas. “Rubbing it on your hands is no help whatsoever,” Jelinek said. “The areas where ticks often bite are important, such as the back of the neck, hollows of the knees, armpits and between the legs.”

While few travellers will want to wear thick clothing covering their arms and legs at poolside, they should do so during outings and whenever they are in a forest. “Light-coloured clothing is better than dark because ticks stand out against it more clearly,” Jelinek remarked.

CCHF was first observed in Turkey in 2002. It is also commonly found in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. (dpa)