A 74-year-old man died in Madrid after contracting Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever or CCHF, which has a fatality rate of upto 40 percent.
The fever is caused by a tick-borne virus called Nairovirus. Several wild and domestic animals are hosts of the virus, according to the World Health Organization.
The man was admitted to Rey Juan Carlos University Hospital in Mostoles, after being bitten by a tick at his holiday home in Toledo.
The patient was then transferred to a high-dependency isolation unit at La Paz University Hospital in Madrid to prevent the disease transmission.
Initially, the man's condition was stable, but it soon started deteriorating. He succumbed to the disease the next day, becoming the first CCHF-fatality in Spain since May 2020, when a 69-year-old man passed away at a hospital in Salamanca due to the same disease.
As per WHO, the virus spreads to people either by tick bites or through contact with infected animal blood or tissues during or immediately after slaughter.
The symptoms of the disease appear in two phases. Initially, the infected person suffers from symptoms such as fever, muscle ache, dizziness, back ache, headache, and sore eyes, followed by fast heart rate, enlarged lymph nodes, and rashes in the mouth and throat, and on the skin.
The WHO states that antiviral drug ribavirin has been effectively used to treat CCHF disease.
To reduce the risk of infection, people should wear protective and light-colored clothing, use repellents on skin and clothing, and avoid areas where the ticks are found in abundance.
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