Virus of Deadly Disease Spreads in Iran

May 24, 2002

TEHRAN, Iran - A deadly virus has infected 30 percent of Iran's cattle stock and killed 20 people since last year, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Friday.

Mohammad Mehdi Gouya, the head of the Disease Management Center of the Health Ministry, was quoted as saying that the 20 people who died were among more than 140 people diagnosed carrying Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.

Health officials have warned that a new outbreak was possible with hot weather coinciding with the return of Muslim pilgrims from the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Relatives of pilgrims slaughter cattle and distribute meat among neighbors, IRNA said. Health officials say spilled blood from slaughtered cattle can cause infections.

Crimean-Congo fever was first identified in the northeastern Khorassan province in 1978 after entering Iran through imported cattle from eastern states, it said. The fever broke out in Pakistan and Afghanistan — Iran's eastern neighbors — earlier this year. Doctors said three people died then.

The virus causing Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever — which is found in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe — is transmitted by ticks, which thrive on sheep and cattle. Infected people can transmit the virus by blood, saliva or droplets from sneezing.

The disease causes a sharp drop in platelets, which allow the blood to clot. Without rapid antiviral drug treatment and platelet replacements, victims can bleed to death.

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