A girl is receiving specialist care in London for a doubtlessly deadly Ebola-like illness.
Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a viral illness normally transmitted by ticks and livestock animals in international locations the place the illness is endemic.
The affected person, who had not too long ago travelled to Central Asia, was identified at Cambridge College Hospitals NHS Basis Belief and is receiving specialist care on the Royal Free Hospital in London.
She is simply the third recognized case of the fever within the UK, with prior instances reported in 2012 and 2014.
Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser on the UK Well being Safety Company (UKHSA), mentioned the virus “doesn’t unfold simply between folks and the general danger to the general public could be very low”.
She mentioned the company was working to contact individuals who have been in shut contact with the lady to evaluate them and supply recommendation.
The scientist added: “UKHSA and the NHS have well-established and sturdy an infection management procedures for coping with instances of imported infectious illness and these will likely be strictly adopted.”
In response to the World Well being Organisation (WHO), the illness has a ten to 40 per cent fatality fee.
If sufferers die, it’s normally within the second week of an infection.
In sufferers who recuperate, enchancment typically begins on the ninth or tenth day after the onset of sickness.
The illness was first described within the Crimea in 1944 and given the title Crimean haemorrhagic fever.
In 1969 it was recognised that the pathogen inflicting Crimean haemorrhagic fever was the identical as that liable for an sickness recognized in 1956 within the Congo.
The linkage of the 2 place names resulted within the present title for the illness and the virus.
Signs of the virus come on abruptly and embody fever, muscle ache, dizziness, neck ache and stiffness, backache, headache, sore eyes and sensitivity to mild.
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Folks can even undergo nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach ache and sore throat early on, adopted by sharp temper swings and confusion.
Different indicators embody rash within the mouth and throat, quick coronary heart fee and enlarged lymph nodes.
Dr Sir Michael Jacobs, guide in infectious ailments on the Royal Free London, mentioned: “The Royal Free Hospital is a specialist centre for treating sufferers with viral infections comparable to Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever.
“Our high-level isolation unit is run by an skilled group of medical doctors, nurses, therapists and laboratory employees and is designed to make sure we will safely deal with sufferers with these sort of infections.”
WHO lists CCHF as a “excessive precedence pathogen” alongside different haemorrhagic ailments comparable to Ebola, Lassa fever and Marburg virus as there are at the moment no efficient medication or vaccines that particularly goal the fever.
A kind of tick often known as Hyalomma tick is the principle provider of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever.
These aren’t established within the UK and the virus has by no means been detected within the UK in a tick.
Anybody visiting areas the place the ticks are discovered ought to take safety, the UKHSA mentioned.
This contains avoiding areas the place ticks are plentiful at occasions when they’re energetic, utilizing tick repellents and checking clothes and pores and skin rigorously for ticks.
In response to the European Centre for Illness Prevention and Management, the affected ticks are in North Africa and Asia and are additionally current in southern and japanese Europe, having been recorded in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, the previous Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain and Ukraine.
