DUSHANBE, August 19, 2009, Asia-Plus — The World Health Organization (WHO) has sent a group of experts in infectious diseases to Tajikistan to support the national boides to organize infectious control and provide them assistance with developing a national program for combating hemorrhagic fever, the UN News Center reports.
It became possible after Tajikistan had informed WHO about five cases of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHR) registered in the Turusnzoda district that had been confirmed by lab tests.
Tajik physicians informed WHO that in the first case, 50-year-old man, resident of the village of Ziyoratut, contracted the disease on July 18 and died on July 26. Clinical presentations of the disease were also detected in four other persons, including his three relatives and one medical worker. The medical worker and one of relatives died on August 5 and 6 respectively. Two other relatives, including the pregnant women, are currently in the hospital. At present, 44 persons who had contact with the VHF (viral hemorrhagic fever) patients are under care of physicians.
Another case of the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) was detected on August 11. The 42-year-old resident of the city of Kulob contracted the disease. Currently, 14 his relatives, neighbors and colleagues are under the care of physicians.
Central Asia Online reported on August 11 that this year, Tajikistan has already vaccinated residents of the country”s most tick-prone regions, including Tursunzoda. Another 5,000 doses of vaccine are on their way from Iran. In addition, the country”s Animal Control Bureau is standing by, ready to run a tick-eradication program in the affected area for the second time this year.
According to WHO, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a viral hemorrhagic fever of the Nairovirus group. Although primarily a zoonosis, sporadic cases and outbreaks of CCHF affecting humans do occur. The disease is endemic in many countries in Africa, Europe and Asia, and during 2001, cases or outbreaks have been recorded in Kosovo, Albania, Iran, Pakistan, and South Africa.
The disease was first described in the Crimea in 1944 and given the name Crimean hemorrhagic fever. In 1969 it was recognized that the pathogen causing Crimean hemorrhagic fever was the same as that responsible for an illness identified in 1956 in the Congo, and linkage of the 2 place names resulted in the current name for the disease and the virus. CCHF is a severe disease in humans, with a high mortality rate. Fortunately, human illness occurs infrequently, although animal infection may be more common.
The geographical distribution of the virus, like that of its tick vector, is widespread. Evidence of CCHF virus has been found in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Healthcare workers in endemic areas should be aware of the illness and the correct infection control procedures to protect themselves and their patients from the risk of nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infection.
The virus which causes CCHF is a Nairovirus, a group of related viruses forming one of the five genera in the Bunyaviridae family of viruses. All of the 32 members of the Nairovirus genus are transmitted by argasid or ixodid ticks, but only three have been implicated as causes of human disease: the Dugbe and Nairobi sheep viruses, and CCHF, which is the most important human pathogen amongst them.
