BUSAN — With grave-tending visits and hiking set to increase ahead of the Chuseok holiday, health officials are urging caution against tick-borne infectious diseases. Extra care is needed because tick larvae, which are too small to spot easily, are appearing in large numbers.
The Busan Institute of Health and Environment said on the 23rd that people should follow prevention guidelines during outdoor activities to avoid bites from hard ticks, which transmit severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS).
The institute surveyed tick habitats on Baegyangsan and Eulsukdo this month and collected a total of 557 ticks. Of those, 452, or 81.1%, were larvae. Tests on the collected ticks found no SFTS virus in any of them.
SFTS is contracted through a bite from a tick carrying the virus. Ticks at every stage of development — larva, nymph and adult — can feed on human blood, and prevention matters because high-risk groups such as older adults can develop severe illness.
Larvae in particular are very small and hard to see with the naked eye. That is why people should minimize skin exposure during outdoor activities by wearing long clothing and using tick repellent. After returning, they should wash up while checking carefully for attached ticks and also inspect the clothes they wore.
After an incubation period, SFTS can cause high fever, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Anyone who develops such symptoms within two weeks of outdoor activity should see a doctor immediately and report the outdoor exposure.
The Busan institute conducts surveys twice a month on Baegyangsan and Eulsukdo from April through November to track tick distribution and check for the SFTS virus.
"Larvae are very small and hard to notice, so even closer attention is needed during outdoor activities such as tending graves, visiting ancestral gravesites and hiking," institute director Lee Yong-ju said. "Please follow tick-bite prevention guidelines thoroughly before and after going outdoors."
