Congo Virus Outbreak of 2022

News has been spreading of a new viral outbreak in Iraq, leading to fears of the infection spreading to other parts of the world. This article is designed to help inform people about the virus, its current status in Iraq and its risk of spread to other countries like Pakistan.

The disease is caused by a virus named the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever orthonairovirus (CCHFV) while the disease itself is named Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF). The CCHFV is generally spread when a tick bites an infected host (whether animal or human) and then bites an uninfected individual, thus spreading the disease. Symptoms include fever, muscle pains, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, and bleeding into the skin. The fatality rate is typically between 10 and 40%, while those that recover from the disease do so in about 2 weeks. There is currently no vaccine or drug which can treat CCHFV, though work has been ongoing for many years to search for a cure.

CCHFV is endemic in Iran. Endemic means regularly found among particular people or in a certain area. CCHF has been reported in Iraq since 1979, with a few cases being reported once every few years. While the latest outbreak is one of the largest yet, it still is only reported to have affected 212 patients between 1 January and 22 May 2022. It should also be noted that only 97 of those cases have been confirmed to be due to CCHFV by laboratory testing, the rest are only suspected to be CCHF. So far 27 deaths have occurred, of which only 13 were in laboratory confirmed cases.

As such there is no cause for alarm at the moment. Small outbreaks are seen from time to time in areas where the virus is endemic. As of yet, the WHO does not recommend any restriction on travel and trade to Iraq based on the information that is currently available.