Kurdistan Region records first Congo fever death; urges citizens to follow safety protocol

At a time the world continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic that claimed over 63 lakh lives, the Kurdistan Region, on June 11, registered the first fatality from Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever on Saturday. In an official update, the Kurdistan Regional Government's Health Ministry said that the first fatality recorded from Congo fever was a 27-year-old school teacher from Khalifan, Erbil province. The Ministry of Health confirmed in a statement obtained by ESTA that Kurdistan Region has become the first to document a death due to Congo fever. 

“A 27-year-old boy who was designated as infected before with Congo fever died today,” the Ministry of Health said in the statement.

According to the Kurdistan health officials, the patient hailed from Soran district and had died due to a fatal health condition which resulted from the disease. “The patient died due to fatal health condition and it was recorded as the first case of death in the Kurdistan Region,” the Ministry stated. It urged citizens to adhere to health safety measures and the prescribed guidelines in order to avoid Congo fever and to check for the symptoms.

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever causes severe haemorrhaging among patients and spreads via blood of infected animals, according to the World Health Organization. The disease has a fatality rate of 10 and 40% in all cases. It has been an endemic in Iraq, of which the Kurdistan Region is an autonomous part, since 1979. 

Fatalities in India recorded in 2021

In 2021, Asian-West African reassortment variant of Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) was first recorded in India. Scientists studied at least 34 cases in Gujarat from the samples collected a year earlier in 2019. There was a high fatality rate (CFR) recorded that year as half of those infected with the Congo fever virus were dead. A majority of the cases were found in Bhavnagar and Surendranagar, where 17 fatalities occurred among the total cases, putting the fatality rate at 50%. 

Small outbreaks of Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) have been reported yearly. Iraq, in May, was in the midst of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever outbreak with 19 deaths among the 111 confirmed cases, the World Health Organization had informed in a statement. The health body had warned that the disease can cause severe bleeding both internally and externally, including from the nose resulting in death. "The number of cases recorded is unprecedented," Haidar Hantouche, a health official in Dhi Qar province had said.

As per the WHO, the cases had far exceeded than recorded in almost 43 years since the disease first spread in Iraq in 1979. It was also found in Crimea in 1944 and has since been an endemic in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Balkan states. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that the disease caused by a tick-borne virus has a slow recovery rate. It is "primarily transmitted" via the ticks on livestock, and hence farmers, slaughterhouse workers and veterinarians are most at risk. 

"Animals become infected by the bite of infected ticks," said the WHO.

"The CCHF virus is transmitted to people either by tick bites or through contact with infected animal blood or tissues during and immediately after slaughter," it added.