SASTM Newsflash
CRIMEAN-CONGO HEMORRHAGIC FEVER -
Two cases of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), the latter reported yesterday [27 Jun 2013], were admitted to the Infectious Disease Department of "Dr. Atanas Dafovski" Hospital in Kardzhali. Both were referred for treatment to the
The patients had been bitten by ticks, which disseminated the disease. This year [2013], the [tick] population is particularly high due to periods of heavy rainfall. According to Dr. Marinova, people bitten by a tick should immediately seek medical attention and not try to remove the tick themselves because of the risk of the tick remaining attached to the patient's body.
The [initial] symptoms of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever can be treated with hyper-immune gamma globulin, but if the disease is in an advanced stage, there is risk of death, warned Dr. Magdalena Marinova. In practice, over 15 percent of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever patients do not recover.
Communicated by: ProMED-mail
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever is caused by infection with a tick-borne virus (belonging to the genus _Nairovirus_ of the family _Bunyaviridae_. The disease was 1st characterized in the
The following information has been extracted from a recent review in The Lancet :
In its immature form, the tick feeds on small mammals. Later, the adult tick attaches itself to cattle, sheep, goats, or human beings. Livestock show no overt signs of disease, and farmers and slaughterhouse workers have little idea they have been infected until they start expressing symptoms: dizziness, muscular pain, and stiffness, and of course the signature bleeding. Whereas infection in birds mostly tends to be abortive, ostriches are important hosts. In the mid 1990s,
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