NEWS : Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever outbreak in Iraq

CRIMEAN-CONGO HAEMORRHAGIC FEVER

• Viral haemorrhagic fever
• Usually transmitted by ticks
• Contracted through contact with viraemic animal tissues (animal tissue where the virus has entered the bloodstream) during and immediately post-slaughter of animals
• Outbreaks has a high case fatality ratio (10-40%)
• Endemic in all of Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and in Asia
• First described in the Crimea in 1944
• In 1969 it was recognized that the pathogen causing Crimean haemorrhagic fever was the same as that responsible for an illness identified in 1956 in the Congo
• Transmitted by ticks, hosts of the virus include both wild and farmed animals such as buffalo, cattle, goats and sheep