Vol.18 No.15, April 17, 2025
Young-Ran Ha , Haesun Yun
, Sungkyung Cha
, Jinhee Lee
, Mirim Kwon
, Yuna Park
, Yong-Pyo Lee
, Gyeong Ran Moon
, Bomin Gu
, Jeong-Hoon Chun
Objectives: Tick-borne diseases are spread by ticks infected with severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), a class 3 statutory infectious disease. Gyeongsangbuk-do Province ranked second nationwide with 256 patients with SFTS over the past 10 years, while Daegu Metropolitan City ranked 10th with 86 patients, underscoring the need for surveillance of tick-borne infectious diseases.
Methods: The Gyeongbuk Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Daegu Metropolitan City, and the Gyeongsangbuk-do Institute of Health and Environment selected five surveillance points and conducted tick collection and genetic testing for SFTS, Lyme disease, tick-borne encephalitis, and Q fever from April to November 2024.
Results: A total of 20,208 tick specimens belonging to three species and four genera were collected. Among the 4,696 adults and nymphs, 4,425 were identified as Haemaphysalis longicornis, accounting for 94.2% of the collected ticks. Infection rates of SFTS, Lyme disease, tick-borne encephalitis, and Q fever pathogen were examined in 16,580 out of 20,208 ticks, confirming that 29 out of 810 pools were positive for the causative agent of Lyme disease and Q fever, establishing a minimum infection rate of 0.17% (29 pools/16,580 individuals).
Conclusions: This survey can be used to establish measures to prevent the introduction and spread of infectious disease vectors and vector-borne infectious diseases in the region.
Myung-Jae Hwang, So Yeon Park, Hyungjun Kim, Se Jeong Yang, Sungchan Yang, Jin Seon Yang
Public Health Weekly Report 2025;18: 17-32 https://doi.org/10.56786/PHWR.2025.18.1.2Hyewook Hwang, Wookeon Lee, Seohyeon Ahn, Young-Sook Choi, Seunghyun Lewis Kwon, Dongwoo Lee, Eun Hwa Choi, SokGoo Lee
Public Health Weekly Report 2025;18: 90-102 https://doi.org/10.56786/PHWR.2025.18.2.3+82-43-719-7569