Fatal CCHF infection from tick bite

An agricultural worker from a remote area near the eastern city of Štip has died of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) just over a week after finding a tick on his abdomen. The CCHF diagnosis was confirmed post-mortem, while a second, fatal case has been reported in a healthcare worker in contact with the patient at the treating hospital in Skopje. The CCHF virus was first detected in North Macedonia in 1971 and the tick vector is now established in all regions. According to the ECDC, sporadic CCHF cases ‘have also been reported in the neighbouring countries of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Kosovo’. Read more