THE Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever has killed 13 people out of a total of nearly 100 cases so far this year in Iraq, the Ministry of Health.

Asked about this by the French Agency, the representative of the Ministry of Health Saif al-Badr assured that, “for now”, the epidemiological situation looks better this year than last year, when 212 cases were confirmed and 27 deaths were recorded.

The viral disease is transmitted to humans by insect bites or contact with infected animals.

“Since the beginning of the year, the number of infections from the virus that causes hemorrhagic fever has reached 95, including 13 deaths,” the Iraqi state news agency INA reported yesterday.

And this year, the poor rural province of Di Kar (south) records the most cases and the most deaths, respectively 28 and 6, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health explained.

In this province, residents raise cattle, sheep, goats and buffaloes, animals that are potential hosts of the virus that causes Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.

The people most threatened are those who raise animals or work in slaughterhouses, the representative at INA emphasized.

According to the World Health Organization, transmission of the virus to humans occurs “either through tick and flea bites, or through contact with the blood or tissues of infected animals, during or immediately after slaughter.”

The virus has a high mortality rate, ranging from 10 to even 40% of cases. The transmission of the virus between people can be through “direct contact with the blood, feces, secreted fluids or organs of those who are infected,” notes the WHO.

The disease is considered endemic in Iraq, where cases have been reported since 1979. However, 2022 saw its most notable outbreak, with only six confirmed cases from 1989 to 2009, three fatal cases in 2018, and “in 2021 33 cases, incl. 13 fatal,” according to the WHO.

Among the hypotheses made by the World Health Organization for the increase in cases is the absence of a pesticide spraying campaign of farmed animals in 2020 and 2021, which allowed the population, especially of fleas, to increase. A WHO official had noted that the proliferation of parasites could, at least partially and “with reservation”, be attributed to climate change, because it lengthened the period of their proliferation.