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Further suspected case of Crimea-Congo fever in Madrid

Xinhua, September 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Regional Health Authority here on Friday said a man whose health was being monitored after being in contact with patients suffering from Crimea-Congo hemorrhaging fever had been placed in isolation after coming down with a fever.

The patient is under observation in the High-Level Isolation Unit at the Carlos III Hospital in Madrid while tests are carried out at the National Center for Microbiology. He is described as being in a "stable" condition.

He is one of 148 people who are still being monitored by health authorities after coming into contact with two confirmed victims of the illness.

One of those is a nurse, who remains in the Carlos III Hospital in a condition described as "stable but serious," after being infected while treating a 62-year-old man who died of Crimea-Congo fever on Aug. 25.

This man is thought to have been infected after being bitten by a tick while walking in a field close to the town of Avila, northwest of Madrid, in what is the first confirmed case of the illness in Western Europe.

Crimea-Congo fever is a tick-borne hemorrhaging fever with a mortality rate of up to 30 percent. It is endemic in Africa, the Balkans, and the Middle East and can also be transmitted through direct contact with the blood, secretions and the organs of infected people. Endit