Turkish health authorities moved Friday to calm public anxiety over Crimea-Congo hemorrhagic fever, saying the outbreak remains far short of epidemic levels. A senior Health Ministry official noted that 150 cases had been confirmed so far in 2006, a figure in line with the previous year's total of 266.
Since the disease first appeared in Türkiye in 2003, it has claimed 43 lives, mostly in central Anatolia, representing a fatality rate of roughly five percent. Officials urged anyone suspecting a tick bite to seek medical attention, and the ministry has distributed tens of thousands of informational leaflets in rural areas where exposure is greatest.
The outbreak has prompted widespread unease: hospitals in affected regions have been flooded with concerned patients, 15 children near Istanbul were placed in quarantine after reporting tick bites, and schools in Ankara canceled outdoor trips including zoo visits and picnics.
The hemorrhagic fever, which shares a family with the more lethal Ebola virus, has no curative treatment. It was first identified in Crimea in 1944; a related case in central Africa in 1956 led to the addition of "Congo" to its name in 1969. How the disease reached Türkiye across the Black Sea remains unknown.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in July 2006, in its own words.