Northern Iraq registers Congo fever death as infections spread

Northern Iraq registers Congo fever death as infections spread
According to the World Health Organization, the disease is tick-borne and causes severe hemorrhaging.
May 7, 2022, 6:57 am

Congo fever is a viral haemorrhagic fever usually transmitted by ticks. It can also be contracted through contact with viraemic animal tissues (animal tissue where the virus has entered the bloodstream) during and immediately post-slaughter of animals (Photo: Pixabay)

The Arabnews reporetd, citing the AFP, Iraqi authorities said one person died on Friday (May 6) of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever as cases of the virus spread to the country’s north.

According to health ministry figures, Iraq has registered at least six deaths from around 20 cases of the illness, also known as Congo fever, since early April.

Health authorities in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, announced the province’s first death from the illness on Friday (May 6).

Health official Ziad Khalaf said that the deceased was a butcher who had failed to follow health regulations.

According to the World Health Organization, the disease is tick-borne and causes severe hemorrhaging.

Most of the cases have been in Dhi Qar, a poor largely rural southern province known for rearing cattle, sheep and goats, all of which are potential carriers of the disease (Photo: Pixabay)

People are generally infected through contact with the blood of infected animals, often after slaughtering livestock.

According to the WHO, it can also be transmitted between humans through “close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected persons."

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The disease has a high fatality rate of between 10 and 40 percent of all cases.

Kirkuk authorities have prohibited the transport of cattle to or from the province.

Nineveh province, also in northern Iraq, registered its first case on Thursday (May 5), while central Babil province recorded one death on April 29.

Most of the cases have been in Dhi Qar, a poor largely rural southern province known for rearing cattle, sheep and goats, all of which are potential carriers of the disease.

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Health Ministry spokesman Seif Al-Badr said on Friday that the country was not “in a state of epidemic.” He said cases were “limited” but acknowledged that the infection rate was “higher than the previous year.”

According to the Health mMinistry, most of those infected have been cattle farmers and abattoir workers.

The WHO says Congo fever is endemic in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans.

Source: arabnews

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