Deadly Crimean Congo tick which kills 30 % of people it infects has hospitalised a man in Spain

Deadly Crimean Congo tick which kills 30% of people it infects has hospitalised a man in Spain. The haemorrhagic bleeding caused by the tick can cause bleeding from the eyes. 

The hospitalised patient, a middle-aged man, was bitten by a tick in Spain before his symptoms were diagnosed as Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), signifying that the virus is still present in this country. However, unlike places such as the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Balkans, where CCHF is an endemic virus, it remains rare in the majority of European countries. 

CCHF was first found in Crimea almost 70 years ago. 

It was found in the UK four months ago when a British woman was found to be carrying the disease. It is the 4th case of the life-threatening virus to have been identified in the UK since 2012, as reported by dailymail.co.uk. 

In Spain, the patient was taken to a hospital in Castile and Leon before being transferred via airlift to another hospital by the Spanish Ministry of Defence. However, Leon health authorities commented that the infected man remained “in a stable condition, despite the clinical severity that this pathology implies”. 

The virus is infectious, the chief medical advisor at the UKHSA has commented that it “does not spread easily between people and the overall risk to the public is very low”. Although it can be transferred between people via “infectious blood or bodily fluids“.

CCHF was first found in Spain in 2011 and in 2016 a Spanish man died after a diagnosis of the virus from a tick bite he had received. 

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