摘要：People engaged in agriculture and animal hus-bandry living in endemic areas are at high risk of tick-transmitted infectious diseases. Both Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever(CCHF)and rickettsial diseases can be transmitted as a result of tick bites. We aimed to evaluate the patients preliminarily di-agnosed with CCHF at our clinic in terms of CCHF and rickettsia seropositivity, epidemiologic features and to compare ELISA and IFAT for serodiagnosis of rickettsiosis. Between 2014-2017,265 patients who were followed up with a preliminary CCHF diagnosis at the Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology Department of Hitit University Corum Erol Olcok Training and Research Hospital, were included in this study. Rickettsia was analyzed by ELISA IgG and IgM (Vircell, Rickettsia conori ELISA IgG+IgM, Spain), IFA (Vircell, Ricketsia conorii IFAIgG, Granada, Spain)and also by in house-PCR. According to the laboratory results for CCHF and Rickettsia patients were divided into two groups:(1)CCHF positive(+),(ii) Rickettsia seropositive(Rick-ettsia+;ELISA/IFAIgM and/or IgG positive).Of the 265 patients,179(67.55%)were male, and the aver-age age was 49.04(age range 18-90)years. In our study,CCHF viruspositivity was 51.3%, while Rick-ettsia IgG+IgM positivity was 24.9%.In the diagno-sis of rickettsiosis IFA and ELISA showed 99.62%agreement, but no PCRpositivity was found.In total, CCHF+(n=136),CCHF-(n=129),Rickettsia+(n=66), cases were evaluated. In total, 123(90.44%)of the patients who were positive for CCHF and 55 (84.62%)of patients seropositive for Rickettsia had applied to the hospital from rural areas (p>0.05).In both group, most of the cases have tick bite history (77.2% in CCHF+ group and 59.1%in Rickettsia+group).In the group in which both agents were found to be negative, this rate decreased to 38.2%(p =0.98). Rickettsia was found to be seropositive in 39 (28.7%)of the 136 patients with CCHF positivity.Rickettsia was seropositive in 27(20.9%)of the 129 patients with CCHF negativity. Except one case with positive RickettsialgM,other 65 cases with IgG pos-itive were not considered as acute rickettsiosis. The fact that we live in an area where CCHF and rickett-sial diseases are endemic requires us to keep these diseases in mind constantly. Although IFAT is con-sidered as the reference test for serological diagnosis of rickettsiosis, ELISA could be an alternative. Rick-ettsial disease, a deadly but treatable disease,should be especially considered in patients who apply with a history of acute fever in endemic areas.
