THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CRIMEAN-CONGO HEMORRHAGIC FEVER AND CLIMATE: DOES CLIMATE AFFECT THE NUMBER OF PATIENTS?

SUMMARY – Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne viral zoonosis. The incidence of zoonotic diseases has been shown to be affected by climatic factors. In this study, we evaluated patients endemic to the CCHF region and examined the relationship between the number of patients and climatic properties of the region where they lived. The study included 548 CCHF patients. Along with the patient demographic and clinical characteristics, we recorded temperature, humidity and precipitation in the places where they lived at the time of their admission to the hospital. In addition to temperature, humidity and precipitation at the time of patient admission, these values were assessed at one month and three months prior to admission. The relationship between the number of patients and the above-mentioned values was examined. Humidity at the time of and one month prior to hospital admission, and precipitation three months prior to hospital admission were found to affect the number of patients admitted to the hospital for CCHF. In conclusion, climate appeared to affect the number of CCHF patients. We believe that the number of patients presenting to the hospital with CCHF could be predicted by taking into account climatic properties of the places where CCHF has been recorded, along with undertaking necessary measures.