Horror 'nose bleed fever' reaches another European country as spread grows
A virus dubbed "nose-bleed fever" with a fatality rate of 30 per cent has reached another European country as fears grow for its rapid spread.
On 14 August, North Macedonia confirmed a new case of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), according to the European Centre for Disease Control Prevention's latest report. The illness has been deemed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as one of nine diseases that "pose the greatest public health risk due to their epidemic potential."
The tick-borne virus causes severe haemorrhaging in patients. Its onset is often very rapid, causing bleeding both internally and externally — some have dubbed it the "nose-bleed fever." Human-to-human transmission of CCHF is less likely than the transmission of the virus by ticks, typically carried by migratory birds from overseas. Global warming is causing more and more breeds to move to warmer climes and, with a return of June's heatwave considered, CCHF is likely to transmit in the UK too.
Earlier this year, on 30 July, North Macedonia reported a fatal case of CCHF in the central part of the country. The patient was an agricultural worker who reported a tick bite and then developed a fever before being hospitalised and later dying. Sporadic cases of CCHF have also been reported in several neighbouring countries such as Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Kosovo.
Professor James Wood, who spoke to Parliament's Science, Innovation and Technology Committee recently, told Mirror earlier this month that should the virus reach the UK, a lockdown will "not be appropriate in any way" to contain CCHF. The University of Cambridge academic said: "You'd be unlikely to get the sort of respiratory transmission. So even say, I don't want to call them extreme lockdown enthusiasts, but, someone who thinks that these measures are very important, to impose straightaway, I don't think it would be appropriate as it's not right for this form of infection."
WHO warns we must prepare for bird flu pandemic if mammal strain jumps to humans
Nose-bleed fever symptoms are sudden, with fever, muscle ache, dizziness, neck pain, backache, headache, and sore eyes. There may also be nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and sore throat early on, followed by sharp mood swings and confusion, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
CCHF was first identified in the Crimean Peninsula in 1944, with an outbreak in the Congo in 1956 resulting in the modern-day name. There is no vaccine available or any antiviral medication but ribavirin, a medicine used to treat other viruses such as hepatitis C, has shown some promise.
There is concern from the WHO and other health experts about the global spread of the breed of tick that carries the virus, the Hyalomma tick. The wide range of animals on which the tick is found means there is potential for it to become endemic in new communities.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
