30 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Senegalese Ministry of Health has confirmed the first case of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in a patient at a hospital in the capital, Dakar, who has succumbed to the disease, the authorities of the African country announced this Sunday.
“Senegal has registered a confirmed human case of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever,” the Ministry said in a statement collected by the official Senegalese news agency APS. The affected person was admitted to the Dalal Jam hospital, where he ended up passing away.
The Ministry has confirmed at least 84 contacts of the patient in the hours prior to his hospitalization. Likewise, it has investigated 73 related animals, although no other case has been detected so far.
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever is a disease transmitted from animals to humans by ticks that survive on wild and domestic animals. Its transmission to humans occurs through “direct contact with the blood or tissues of infected animals,” tick bites, or through “direct contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person.”
The health authorities have recommended the adoption of several measures ranging from “frequent hand washing with soap and water, treatment of places with ticks and the use of veterinary services for the treatment of animals carrying ticks.”
The disease’s mortality rate, health services warn, can range from 10 to 40 percent, although the scope of recent outbreaks in Africa has been limited. According to the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the deadliest was detected in Mauritania in 2003, with 35 cases and six deaths. South Africa recorded 17 cases and five deaths in 2011.
