Beware of Tick-Borne Infectious Diseases... Follow Outdoor Activity Prevention Guidelines

Prevention Rules and Important Management

Early Diagnosis and Timely Treatment

The Gumi Public Health Center advised that if you experience high fever, vomiting, or other digestive symptoms within two weeks after outdoor activities during the season when outdoor activities increase and the busy farming season begins, or if you find tick bite marks or visually confirm ticks, you should immediately seek medical attention.

Early Detection Guidelines for Tick-Borne Infectious Diseases.

Tick-borne infectious diseases, designated as Class 3 notifiable infectious diseases, mainly occur in people aged 50 and older living in rural areas, but patients continue to appear in urban areas due to outdoor activities such as camping and hiking.

Among them, Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS) has no preventive vaccine or treatment, has a relatively high fatality rate of about 20%, and since many cases occur from April to November, early recognition of patients and timely treatment and adherence to preventive measures are very important.

Tick-borne infectious diseases are transmitted when ticks carrying pathogens such as viruses or bacteria accidentally bite and suck blood from humans, or bite and suck blood from humans through host animals such as mammals, birds, reptiles, and rodents.

As a preventive measure, it is important to minimize skin exposure by wearing long sleeves, long pants, boots, hiking shoes, high socks, hats, neck scarves, and gloves before high-risk activities.

It is also strongly recommended to wear light-colored clothing to check for ticks, apply tick repellents every 4 hours, use auxiliary items such as mats, cushions for farming work, or aprons when sitting on grass, and take a full-body shower and wash outdoor clothes after high-risk activities.

Precautionary Measures for Preventing Tick-Borne Infectious Diseases.

Choi Hyun-joo, director of the Gumi Public Health Center, stated, “Although human-to-human transmission of tick-borne infectious diseases has not yet been discovered, there have been cases where medical staff were infected through the blood and bodily fluids of severe SFTS patients in medical institutions. Caution is needed if there is exposure to the patient’s blood, and it is important to strictly follow preventive measures during farming and outdoor activities.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.