Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Gaza Media Office: Bloody spectacle shows that these zones have become collective death traps rather than aid distribution zones.
Gaza Media Office: Dozens of citizens are still surrounded under constant fire in the vicinity of the "aid station."
Gaza Media Office: As soon as citizens arrived, occupation and Americans opened direct fire on them.
Gaza Media Office: Occupation, in complicity with the US company, called on citizens to move toward Wadi Gaza Bridge, claiming that aid would be distributed.
Gaza Government Media Office: Occupation set a bloody trap at bridge of Wadi Gaza, luring thousands of starved civilians, and opened fire on them.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in South Lebanon: Israeli drone drops sonic grenade in town of Ramiyah.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in South Lebanon: Israeli drone strike targets vehicle in town of Beit Lif.
The Government Media Office in Gaza: The occupation’s latest crime is further evidence of its ongoing implementation of genocide through starvation.
Gaza Government Media Office: This is a methodical use of aid as a tool of war to blackmail hungry civilians.
Gaza Government media office: Massacre committed by occupation today is a blatant war crime under international law.

Unprecedented number of deadly fever cases recorded in Iraq

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Agencies
  • 29 May 2022 16:32
4 Min Read

Caused by tick bites, the surge of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever cases in Iraq this year shocks officials, amid fears the numbers would boom after Eid Al-Adha.

  • x
  • Iraq
    Health worker spraying cow with pesticides

Iraq's health workers are targetting blood-sucking ticks at the heart of the country's worst detected outbreak of a fever that causes people to bleed to death.

The scene of health workers dressed in full protective kits is one that has become common in the Iraqi countryside, as the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) spreads, spreading from animals to humans.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this year Iraq has recorded 19 deaths among 111 CCHF cases in humans.

The virus has no vaccine and onset can be swift, causing severe bleeding both internally and externally and especially from the nose. It causes death in as many as two-fifths of cases, medics say.

"The number of cases recorded is unprecedented," highlighted Haidar Hantouche, a health official in Dhi Qar province.

In previous years, cases could be counted "on the fingers of one hand," he noted.

A farming region in southern Iraq, Dhi Qar province accounts for nearly half of Iraq's cases.

Transmitted by ticks, hosts of the virus include both wild and farmed animals such as buffalo, cattle, goats, and sheep - all of which are common in the province.

Surge of cases shocked officials

The WHO indicated that "Animals become infected by the bite of infected ticks."

"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.

The surge of cases this year has shocked officials, since numbers far exceed recorded cases in the 43 years since the virus was first documented in Iraq in 1979.

In Dhi Qar, only 16 cases resulting in seven deaths had been recorded in 2021, Hantouche said. But this year the province has recorded 43 cases, including eight deaths.

Related News

Half a billion adolescents could face obesity by 2030, report warns

Gaza Ministry reports 136 martyrs in 24 hours amid ongoing genocide

Considered an Endemic in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans, CCHF's fatality rate is between 10 and 40%, the WHO noted.

Mortality seems to be declining

The WHO's representative in Iraq, Ahmed Zouiten, said there were several "hypotheses" for the country's outbreak.

They included the spread of ticks in the absence of livestock spraying campaigns during Covid in 2020 and 2021.

"Very cautiously, we attribute part of this outbreak to global warming, which has lengthened the period of multiplication of ticks," he pointed out.

But "mortality seems to be declining", Zouiten noted, as Iraq had mounted a spraying campaign while new hospital treatments had shown "good results".

Fears that cases may boom following Eid Al-Adha

Since the virus is "primarily transmitted" to people via ticks on livestock, most cases are among farmers, slaughterhouse workers and veterinarians, the WHO said.

"Human-to-human transmission can occur resulting from close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected persons," the Organization explained.

Alongside uncontrolled bleeding, the virus causes intense fever and vomiting.

Medics fear that cases may boom following the Eid Al-Adha in July - a Muslim holiday when families traditionally slaughter an animal to feed guests.

"With the increase in the slaughter of animals, and more contact with meat, there are fears of an increase in cases during Eid," said Azhar al-Assadi, a doctor specializing in hematological diseases in a hospital in Nasiriya.

Meat consumption hit

Authorities have put in place disinfection campaigns and are cracking down on abattoirs that do not follow hygiene protocols.

Near Najaf, a city in the south, slaughterhouses are monitored by the authorities.

According to workers and officials, the virus has adversely hit meat consumption.

"I used to slaughter 15 or 16 animals a day -- now it is more like seven or eight," mentioned butcher Hamid Mohsen.

Fares Mansour, director of Najaf Veterinary Hospital, which oversees the abattoirs, noted that the number of cattle arriving for slaughter had fallen to around half normal levels.

"People are afraid of red meat and think it can transmit infection," he said.

  • World Health Organization
  • Dhi Qar
  • Iraq
  • WHO
  • Najaf

Most Read

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive to a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington (AP)

Rift widens: Trump, Netanyahu clash in heated phone call over Iran

  • Politics
  • 26 May 2025
US judges quietly consider private security amid Trump tensions

US judges quietly consider private security amid Trump pressures

  • US & Canada
  • 25 May 2025
An Israeli army vehicle moves in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern occupied Palestine, Thursday, May 29, 2025 (AP)

Hamas rejects Witkoff ceasefire plan, says alters terms

  • Politics
  • 29 May 2025
Spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, announces a new operation against Ben Gurion Airport on May 29, 2025 (Yemeni Military Media)

Yemen announces successful hypersonic missile strike on Ben Gurion

  • Politics
  • 30 May 2025

Coverage

All
War on Gaza

Read Next

All
MIT bans class president who gave pro-Palestine speech
US & Canada

MIT bans class president over pro-Palestine speech

Arab ministers condemn Israel 'ban' on planned West Bank visit
Politics

Arab ministers condemn Israeli ban on planned West Bank visit

Major General Hu Gangfeng, Vice President, National Defense University, People's Liberation Army, China, leaves after a panel discussion during the 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore, Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)
Politics

China blasts Hegseth, calls US top 'troublemaker' in Asia-Pacific

US activists demand shutdown of Musk's 'dirty' supercomputer: Reports
Technology

US activists demand shutdown of Musk's 'dirty' supercomputer: NBC News

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS