Recent outbreaks of crimean–congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) in Iraq

Abstract

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is an emerging zoonotic disease defined as a disease that passes from an animal or insect to a human. It is responsible for several deaths in humans, while the hosts, like cows, sheep, and goats are not affected. The CCHF was recognized for the first time in Iraq in 1979 where the virus was isolated from human cases and characterized. Since then, several small-scale outbreaks have been reported in 2019, 2021, and 2022. During this period, awareness workshops were conducted targeting government officials, veterinarians, medical doctors, and assistant staff. A strong collaboration strategy was put into place between these sectors together with the united nation office in Baghdad. These resulted in accelerating of the implementation of the amendment of the Veterinary Medical Progression Law 2021, establishing a supreme Committee for Epidemiological Disease Control supervised by the Council of Ministers and forming a collaboration crisis cell from Baghdad and other municipalities and ministries concerned, and placed detailed safety, one health and control measures for all parties involved. The current outbreak cases reached 90 cases with 18 deaths with the majority being in Thi-Qar Governorate. The current situation is difficult to deal with such a highly virulent virus due to the unavailability of an effective vaccine nor BSL-4 facility to safely deal/handle the virus in the country.